Neal Vitale Reviews: The Substance *
Start of Jan. 20 Column. More or Less Continuous News Service since 1998

Dept. of Navel Gazing: Return of Creativity

I continue with my ceaseless search for the roots of creativity.

There are times in our lives that represent a clear break between past and present. For me, 1977 was one of those times. Leaving out the details, let me simply say that 1977 Paul went missing for a few decades. Then, with the help of a few women in my life, I was able to reintegrate him. There followed a burst of creativity. Tough year, great results.

YMMV, of course, but I found getting in touch with an earlier me, and viewing past mistakes as learning opportunities, improved an already fantastically wonderful life, so I recommend it.

Whenever I use the word department, (as in the title) I am always reminded of Firesign Theater’s Department of Redundancy Department.

Comments

Robert E. Malchman

Are you saying you were a better person at 25 than you were at, say, 50? If that's true, you're more of an outlier than Spiders Georg. Pretty much everyone grows better over time (unless some kind of mental illness kicks in out of nowhere). I was a better person at 30 than at 20, at 40 than at 30, at 50 than at 40, and at 60 than at 50. I hope to continue that streak for another couple of decades.

Paul Schindler

I was not better at 25. I was just more creative. It’s nice to have that creativity back. Actually, getting that person back doesn’t mean he was better, he was just missing piece of me.

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