“I went to my neighbor’s house for Shabbos and I was blown away: her table was beautifully set with an original centerpiece she designed herself. The napkins contrasted with the tablecloth in a way I wouldn’t have dared to try but looked fantastic. Her salads contained foods I’ve never seen before! It was really amazing. But I’m never having her over to my house. My salad consists of lettuce cucumbers and tomatoes and while my table is set with plates and cutlery that’s about all I can say for it. I can’t compete with her.”
“Whenever I have a challenge I discuss it with my sister. She can come up with a creative solution within minutes. For some reason she can turn the problem on its head look at it from a new angle and see a solution I never could have envisioned. I wish I had her skill. My mind is so black and white. I can’t think outside the box at all.”
Gifted with Creativity
We all admire creative people. They boggle our minds and delight our senses. We feel awed and often wish that we had their talent. And since they often get such positive attention for their efforts we may even feel a bit jealous wishing that we ourselves could garner some of that recognition. Our old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies just don’t earn the accolades generated by our sister-in-law’s plum butter Linzer torte with its unique lattice topping. We fail to impress others but worst of all we fail to impress ourselves. We beat ourselves up for not being creative enough as if creativity were somehow a mitzvah or a measure of our personal worth.
Creativity is a gift from Hashem a trait that exists on a continuum in human beings. In this way it is not unlike the trait of intelligence. All people have intelligence but they have different kinds and different amounts of each kind. For instance someone may have “school” intelligence — the kind of smarts that earns top grades in academic settings. However that same person may have a much smaller amount of “people” smarts resulting in poor communication skills lack of empathy and other social deficits. People vary in their mechanical intelligence (how “smart” they are with their hands) their artistic intelligence their musical intelligence their technological intelligence and so on. Humor is another trait that varies in individuals. Some people are naturally quick-witted able to make rapid-fire comebacks and plays on words. Others may specialize in subtle ironic humor. Others are good at getting jokes but not at making them. And so on.
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