Creating the Past

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Creating the Past

It seems like a contradiction .  After all, the past is over; what happened happened (we think,)  Besides, what good could it do?

But it’s something we all do, often without realizing it.  My most recent experience was that I went on a vacation with my wife and a granddaughter.  We were crowded into a small efficiency unit and were forced to kow tow to a very unreasonable and demanding 6-year old.  And when it was over – and I wrote about it – the experience was very different.  As in most experiences, there were ups as well as downs.  While I was there, the upsetting times dominated.  But when I was able to see the whole experience, I was able to see what a good time we all had.

Of what value was this?  Immense.  I’ve been able to resurrect the great relationship I have with these two extraordinary women and I’ve been able to learn a lot about myself as well as seeing what constitutes fun, what to emphasize next time (instead of saying “never again”, I’m looking forward to our next time with her.)

I remember several years after we were first married – one night, lying in bed, Nancy suddenly sat bolt upright and said, “Wow!  I had a great time in high school.”  Reexamining your history can eliminate phobias, restore relationships, even reestablish old relationship. 

Since the past is always with us – and is uniquely ours – looking at it with new eyes, not the same ones that buried the memory, is a form of creativity we don’t often acknowledge and one that is potentially fruitful.

Useful Quotes

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.
Paul Boese

Looking back you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your life- and it was you. It is not too late to find that person again.”
Robert Brault

When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things – not the great occasions – that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.
Bob Hope

Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.
William Ralph Inge

We cannot let the past cloud our perception of the future.
Karen Chikodro

Creative Corner

What Happened?

I thought I knew
After all, I was there -
Wasn’t I?
It didn’t rain;
the sky was blue
Wasn’t it?
But if I ask you,
so what – that’s your view
That’s only you
And who are you?
Another me.

Education and Creativity

I’ve been watching a few movies that emphasize that schools work very hard to train kids and they have a simple rule structure:  rules first, creativity last – if you’re lucky and stubborn (like, say, Bill Gates.)

One movie, Accepted, speculated on what school could be if students were asked, “What would you like to learn?”

And I’ve been rereading Calvin & Hobbes – a spiritual exercise I recommend that we repeat every few years – just long enough to forget most of the details.  Calvin was never asked that question and doesn’t care.

Here’s one:
Hobbes: Do you have an idea for that story yet?
Calvin:  No, I’m waiting for an inspiration.
Calvin:  You can’t just turn on creativity like a
             faucet.  You have to be in the right
             mood.
Hobbes: What mood is that?
Calvin:   Last minute panic.

And the next day he starts with a 2-panel discussion of the realities of school –

Calvin:  If you ask me these assignments don’t teach you how to write.  They teach you how to hate to write.  Deadlines, rules how to do it, grades…How can you be creative when someone’s breathing down your neck?

 Useful Quotes

It takes about $250,000 of taxpayer money and 12 years of modern education to take a child who sees the world systemically and transform them into an adult who sees the world linearly. 
Paul Hawken

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
Albert Einstein

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Albert Einstein

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Arthur Koestler
Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
Beatrix Potter

If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.
Carl Rogers

Creative Corner

Shopping Mall

This is the consumer Rhumba –
The rhumba in the shopping mall,
in the mall of conversations,
in the mall of conversations – ay-ay-ay.

The wagons jerk from side to side
and jiggle down the aisle
with rests to take and look
and stops to grab and hold
and the wagon wheels go squeak, go ay-ay-ay.

And every store is different
And every store’s the same,
Where we take the conversations for ourselves,

where we take the conversations by ourselves, oh ay-ay-ay
and we give the stores the blame.
We take the conversations from the shelves, oh ay-ay-ay
and we give the stores the blame
in the Mall of Conversations, ay-ay-ay.

You need to see that you have bought them
and not been given them as gifts.
that you’re the one who brought them to your life..

You need to see the stores are there for you,
for you to choose – oh ay-ay-ay
that the rhumba in the Mall of Conversations, ay-ay-ay
is there for you to use, ay-ay-ay

Creative Communication

I took Sadie to the vet today (if you’re new – she is about to be 18 and last week had two seizures – read previous blag.).  What happened was remarkable.  The smallest peculiarity was when I first got to the highway – I made a sharp ramp turn to get on – 20mph for real, particularly with Sadie in the car.  And I was guided by a huge sign that said EXIT 20MPH.  Except it was an entrance.

Animals are telepathic and they communicate.  Sadie was asleep on my bed and I went to wake her to go for a quick walk and then into the car and to the vet.

She wouldn’t go.  She woke and then went back to ‘sleep.’  I called Nancy in a panic – She suggested that I let her stay – and I did.  Then Sockees, the 14 year old cat came into the room (always Sadie’s ‘alpha’ dog territory) and jumped on the bed and, as I told the vet, gave her a free cat-scan.

Then I prepared for the trip by carrying a blanket down into the car, opening the door – then opening the house doors – I planned to carry Sadie down.  But she got up and walked downstairs. [Sockees then zoomed out the doors – for the first time in about a year ---  I wasn’t worried – It was clear that she would wait until we got home.]

Sadie bitched some and I carried her the last few steps into the car. 

We started with the Regular vet to gather her current measurements and then the acupuncturists to recommend what we should do… And all her statistics are very normal.  He recommended that we just let her recover her strength – They could find nothing wrong…  We will just monitor her healing

Sockees was waiting when we parked and waited for us at the top of the stairs.

The Law of Attraction is the law.  It always works; we just have to get out of the way.

Useful Quotes

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mohandas Gandhi

 Anger is natural. Grief is appropriate. Healing is mandatory. Restoration is possible.
Jane Rubietta

The best way out of emotional pain is through it.
Unknown

The only way around is through.
Robert Frost

Creative Corner

Confined

In a time of plenty
life shifts from the keyboard
to walking the dog,
an oscillation that includes it all.

In here,
modern superman –
sitting by a window that hides all light –
fluorescent man,
fingers connected to the world,
tapping softly – speaking loudly,
heard or not.
The bound man,
tactile-ly enhanced and separated
from a body ever-stiffening in
atrophied oscillation.

Out there,
full moon’s
patterned mosaics light Sadie
darting in and out,
her kind of dog-walk jazz,
a very personal riff
Early spring insects set the texture,
for footsteps echoing
remembered melodies,
far, far from nature,
stretching in released wonder
in times of plenty

June 4th – Raining

You know that I am studying the Law of Attraction.  To me, the critical component is to keep the energy ‘pure’… authentic.  If I say X, but I ‘inadvertently’ communicate Y, I’ll end up with Y.

Now this is very common…ordinary.  My dog, Sadie, will be 18 next month -   She’s been a teen ager since she was 6 months old and she had seizures a few days ago… scared the hell out of my wife and me.  We understand that death is inevitable, at least according to our current knowledge.  And we intend she live for five more years.

My quandary is this – Is that intention authentic?  I think that even asking the question makes the vibe un-pure.  And that doubt can creep into any intention.  But not expressing doubt is still doubt.

Now all of this is because it’s raining today.

Useful Quotes

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly. . . spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.
Susan Taylor

The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over.
Aesop

Absence weakens mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out candles and kindles fires.
Frangois de la Rochefoucauld

If you’re careful enough, nothing good or bad will ever happen to you.
Ashleigh Brilliant

The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.
Florence Scovel Shinn

Creative Corner 

Shedding Rain
   ©June 7, 2000
Such is life.
The sun shines brightly
and we walk in late spring warmth.
A small breeze cools the face.
 Leaves shudder slightly
and the trees shed the last
of last night’s rain.
Each droplet catches the sun
and falls like a jewel,
and those that touch my face,
anoint me –
I am blessed to be alive.
Yet there was a time
not that far away
where I would have said,
”The sun shines brightly,
and yet the trees shed tears.”

Secrets for Sale

I am exploring The Secret.  I see it as fundamentally true.  Consistent with my life.  Consistent with what I’ve been taught and with what I’ve figured out.  I have always considered myself to be my own guinea pig, lab rat par excellence.

So I am looking for truing mechanisms/  Millions of people now know the Secret, the Law of Attraction, the LOA of life.  And they want to be rich and they say (quietly, because they know that ‘out loud’ is their answer)  “how come I’m not rich yet?”  “How fast does the LOA work?”  “How can I make it work faster?”

We need to discover how our inner lives are in conflict with our expressions.  I don’t ask those questions. 

I first discovered the LOA for myself years before I knew my ass from a hole in the ground.  Life was working.  I was great and I had no idea how.  I finally interfered with myself and went broke.  So here I came again.  This time I did the est training (now Landmark Education) and life was working and I was great.  Now I knew some things – I knew I was responsible.  I knew I was God in my universe.  So when I screwed up and went broke again, I didn’t know how – I didn’t know what – But at least I knew that I was the one.  OK here, I went again/

This pattern has repeated – Both stronger and worse.  God punishing God and rewarding God.  I remember a JD Salinger short story called Teddy–  “My sister was only a very tiny child then, and she was drinking her milk, and all of a sudden I saw that she was God and the milk was God. I mean, all she was doing was pouring God into God, if you know what I mean.”. So I am a useful test case.

I can feel the energy shifting as I become more me.  Nancy is an even better test case.  Yesterday they catered her lunch and she Loved the food (normally yecchy)  Then she got an unexpectedly large bonus – it’s been several years – and today she was allowed to leave early (support staff is never allowed to leave early.)  Is that evidence?

Of course it is.  Because we are the judges, the assessors, the evaluators – all crap – We are the Gods in our universe.  And you really learn to tune in to the energy.  But we’re doing a lot – not just believing in this LOU (Law if the Universe) – not just doing our jobs with integrity – We meditate every day.  We have instituted some practices that we are told will tune us up – practices of T Harv Eker, Jack Canfield, Robert Allen and mostly the Hicks’.  Life is new again, exciting, rewarding.

Useful Quotes

Every day is a new beginning.
Treat it that way.
Stay away from what might have been and look at what can be.
Marsha Petrie Sue

“Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people”
Giordano Bruno

Most of my major disappointments have turned out to be blessings in disguise. So whenever anything bad does happen to me, I kind of sit back and feel, well, if I give this enough time, it’ll turn out that this was good, so I shouldn’t worry about it too much.
William Gaines

Creative Corner

The Destination
                       ©April, 2000 
The destination must be worth the journey
And the journey worth its end–
It’s not enough to want the weight,
you need to want the diet, too 

I have been traveling so long;
I know the rest stops all along the way –
all the diversions,
all the highwaymen.In this commute from hell to health –
as soon as I arrive,
I head for hell again Perhaps if I enjoyed the trip
I wouldn’t have to take it so often

Write and Wrong

From 2000 until the end of 2003 I kept a spiritual journal – a journal that I tracked my ups and downs in carving a spiritual path.  I’m editing it now to publish on my website – Some of it is garbage, but most of it is valuable – even nice and easy to read. 

This blog (and my next Writing for the Reading ezine from my site) will initiate a similar journal on creativity (mostly mine).  What makes it interesting is the constraints I’ve imposed on myself.  I’m a coach and I’m targeting a constant flow of clients, 6 a week.  Why 6?  Fewer interferes with cash flow; more interferes with my life.

I write two blogs and two ezines and I’m committed to writing at least one article each week.  The combination of these activities leaves me no time for inspiration.  And I’ve never taken a course in writing; my training is two-fold – my reading and years of writing.

So looking at creating will surely be interesting to me – and hopefully, to you.  I’m going to publish this journal a year from now. 

In last week’s posting I spoke about a basic idea I have about creativity – I analogize it to punning… combining something from one place and using it in another to produce an incongruous result.  So I titled this write and wrong.  If this were about ladders, I might have titled it write and rung which, for a punster is a multiple pun.  But what that really is for me is that in using language, everything I know is often available.  So you may groan.

                                                          Useful Quotations

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
A.A. Milne

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
Albert Einstein

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
Edward De Bono

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
Erich Fromm

                                                                Creative Corner

Sometimes a day in May
Is as rare as a day in June
Sometimes a hastily written note 
Is seen as art
Things are known to happen backwards
And things that shouldn’t be just are
Conclusions are foolish
And unavoidable
Yet we see
Again and again
That no chains are
Inescapable
Come join me.

 

Testing Myself

Now I’m committed to two different  newsletters and trwo different blogs – Start with www.michaellipp.com and explore.  So I’m testing my ability to stay productive and engaging. 

I found out some years ago that the best thing I can do is disconnect my accepted thinking processes and let my fingers talk.  This got tricky when I switched from pen and paper to typewriter (you remember those) and now keyboard.  I’m sure I’ll have to do it again.  Recently Ive noticed that my right hand touch types and I mostly use 1 or 2 fingers on my left hand.  Well, I’ve always been peculiarly ambidextous.  I write righty, but I pitch and throw lefty (excpt tennis, pool and ping pong, where I hold the weapns in my right hand.)

Then I reconnect my traditional brain when I edit.

I’m exploring how we create – or think we create — Einstein said something like, “Creation is hiding your sources.”  I have a sense that that’s so – I relate creation to punning – Puns use words or word fragments in different contexts.  Collages are puns.  For me, drawing is  punning – I suspect invention is as well.

Van Jones said that what the world needs is Velcro – Leggos.  I say we need Puns.

Now, I often include poems with these things.  sort of written on the fly – which is easier because I rarely rhyme –

Letting You No

See – there it is – You don’t have to know when you no
not even what you no only that you no
Directions are coloring inside the lines; puns aint
There’s nothing left since you left
So you needn’t be right when you write

Color when you want
And where you want and wear what you want
Creation is pretense
and keeps you calm – it’s pre-tense

This is pure gibberish -
I’ll win one for the gibber

“It was so quiet you could hear a pun drop”  Bugs Baer
“It requires genius to make a good pun.
Some men of bright parts can’t reach it.” Hannah Crowley
“A pun is the lowest form of humor,
unless you thought of it yourself” Doug Larson