Long ago it was believed that a genius was not the person, but an entity outside that person. It was as though a genie lived in the walls where the creative person labored and spoke to them on rare or numerous occasions.
The job of the person was to show up, to do the work.
You see, that way the work was not totally coming from the person, and they could not, therefore, take total credit. Likewise, if the work smelled of rotten tomatoes, they weren’t totally responsible either.
I got this from a TED talk by #Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat, Pray, Love.
You can find it on YTube, “Your elusive creative genius—Elizabeth Gilbert”
It’s fabulous.
We all yearn to touch brilliance, and we try to push it out of us. “I can’t do it,” we wail. “What I do is all a load of crap. I’ll never make it. Why do I feel pulled by the scruff of the neck to do this thing I do? Is this my life work? Am I deluding myself?”
“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year?...
“Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”—PATRICK HENRY
P.S. Robin Williams, the voice of the blue genie in Aladdin, ad libbed so much of the role they had 16 hours of film.
P.S. Robin Williams, the voice of the blue genie in Aladdin, ad libbed so much of the role they had 16 hours of film.
