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by Brian G. Daigle  Creativity is a fundamental impulse, a deep and residing reflex of our humanity. We were made to create. We are, as much as we are homo sapien (thinking man), also homo faber (making man). That creativity bears out in big ways and in small ways, in ways that create something over several years or just a few seconds. It bears out in how we organize both time and space, how we not just use sticks and stones to build cathedrals and homes but also gestures and gaits to build romance and soulmates. We create as much with material things as we do with immaterial things. And our daily lives are both the soil and the fruit of our creativity. But as with anything else in the human condition, creativity can be stifled. It can erode or be diminished or dwindle in both individuals and groups of individuals. It can be directed to vicious ends. There are, therefore, twelve great creativity killers we should avoid:
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by Brian G. Daigle  "…perhaps I may trouble you annually to about the same amount, this being a very favorite wine, and habit having rendered the light and high flavored wines a necessary of life with me." – Thomas Jefferson
“Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.” ― John Keats, in a letter to his sister Fanny, 1819 I didn’t grow up around much wine, and I have had times in life where I’ve been cautious about alcohol, most particularly during my high school and college years. Into graduate school, where I was placed amidst men and women who took life seriously but virtue even more seriously, I began to consider the history, philosophy, and practice of enjoying and creating wine. Over the past fifteen years I have sought to better understand “my wine palate.” What do I like? Why? What do I think about it all? I have tried to be thoughtful about wine, because I believe what Socrates said about life in his final days on earth is true about everything in life: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And so it is equally true that the unexamined habit is not worth continuing, and the unexamined bottle is not worth drinking. I have enjoyed being around people who are true experts in this field, gleaning what I can and asking how it is I may have the same passion and commitment to the things I love, and also doing a bit of reading and documentary-watching about wine. I am a proud novice. As a faithful novice, who will likely remain a novice on this particular topic, there are ten important truths I’ve discovered about wine: by Brian G. Daigle  A dear mentor once told me of a lecture he gave to a typical undergraduate audience at a large state university. His lecture was on the existence of God, the basic Judeo-Christian assertion that there is one, true God, and that this God has truly (even if not fully) revealed himself to us, and that if we would want to live good and happy lives, we must ultimately know, love, and worship that God above all things. When his lecture was over, a young man raised his hand in the front, stood up amidst the assembly of his peers, and began to give a variety of self-reports about his own disbelief in such a God, or any deity whatsoever. This young man, like many such young men and women entangled in our present-day college and university systems, was a proudly devout atheist; he had no qualms sharing this peculiar creed with the speaker and room full of his fellow university students. |
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