CREATIVITY AND MEDICINE

“Life cannot be captured. The human heart cannot be captured. The moment of creation itself is fleeting.”
Richard Gere as Parker Wilson in HACHI, A DOG’S TALE.

Creativity is a process that can’t be looked at too closely; it is changed by the very act of observing.

Since the publication of my novel, SPIRIT RANCH, I have discovered that working to make a face more youthful or writing a novel have more in common then might be imagined at first glance. There is a transcendent moment with both acts, a point in time where preparation, study, experience, and heart all come together. The result is out there for all the world to see, an intimate baring of the soul, a point where explanations stop and the finished product is left to stand on its own. Or fall.

When it works it is like a perfect moment in sports, an achievement that, once experienced, draws you back again and again.

This much I do know: Creativity begins with passion, a fire to do something, to place your mark where there was nothing. Unless you are Mozart, an extensive groundwork has to be in place often requiring years of study and of preparation. What is ultimately seen as effortless is actually the confluence of many forces.

Lucille Ball used to say that what made I LOVE LUCY so successful was that she practiced and rehearsed so much the finished product looked spontaneous.

The moment of creation is wildly exhilarating and humbling at the same time. At the end you are left wondering where it all came from because when it works out you realize that you were somewhere off to the side while it was going on, at once an observer and an instrument of the Ultimate Creator, privileged and blessed to be part of the result.

Gotta go...