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In which I attempt to set a New Year's Resolution

Today in church, someone made the statement that God's defining characteristics are creation and compassion. I haven't been able to stop thinking about that all day. How wonderful, that the two most godly attributes are the ability to create beauty, and to love each other.

I think I want to make these two attributes the focus of the coming year, but I'm not sure how. I think I'm pretty clear on what compassion is, but how encompassing is the idea of creation? Is spending time with a friend an act of creation, because you're creating a bond? What about playing an instrument? If you didn't compose the song, does it still count as creation, because you're creating the sound itself? Does a product have to be completely original to be creative?

Readers, what do you think? How do you exhibit creativity and compassion in your lives?

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 30, 2013 at 12:25 AM

    I think you can come at this goal from two sides. On the one hand, I think so many people are held back from actually literally creating things because of fear. Fear that it won't be perfect or that people will think it's stupid, or that they won't be able to do it or whatever the fear is....it stops them making things. So trying to conquer that fear and attempt to create things in the most literal sense is definitely a worthy goal.
    But I think you can also approach it from another angle at the same time. In this post you come up with a whole bunch of creative ways to "create" that aren't exactly literal creation. I think it might be just as legitimate to work on embracing a spirit of creation by trying to adjust your perspective to where you can see any and every activity you engage in as an act of some kind of creation. I think that for people who struggle with confidence or self worth (like me) that could be an incredibly beneficial way to look at things.

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  2. aconlinJanuary 1, 2014 at 8:00 PM

    Those are two great qualities to practice. As for originality and creativity, I recently read/heard/saw something that made an interesting point. I wish I could remember what it was from. Anyhoodlums, the idea was that everything had been done, and being original is essentially impossible. What's important then, in art or creation, isn't trying to be original, but being authentic. (I don't entirely agree with the idea that one can't be original, but it made a good point, nonetheless.)

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