The Creative Life: Brain Space

Mmmm, brains a-sizzlin'. Kutaisi, Georgia.

Years ago, the Atlantic Monthly (before it devolved into the pseudo-intellectual organ it is now) ran a riveting article about how religious faith and ethics are two entirely different biological operations. An individual might have both in spades, or neither, or be rich in one and poor in the other.

I bring this up because the same idea is probably apt for the creative process. That is, a person's vision is separate from the discipline one needs to give light to the vision - to give birth to it.

There is a lot of raw creative material in my head or, in the case of photos, in my hard drive awaiting distillation. I'm not at all happy that 2014, especially the second half, saw so little creative output, notwithstanding tremendous amounts of input. 

It seems that my brain can focus on only so many things at once. My year in South Louisiana was filled with new things - both good and not-so-good - that sucked great swaths of brain energy. Learning to dance! Starting a new job! Car troubles! A wretched bout with backache. And more, some of which is none of your beeswax.

If I now know that I can only barely chew gum and walk at the same time, what does this mean to me and my creative life?

What it means is that if I want to push stuff out, then I have to set up the physical time and the brain space to produce. To effect the latter, I've got to divert my brain-energy flow to creative thinking from distracted thinking. Otherwise my creativity is just the snap and crackle without the pop.