Imagination and Creativity - the same thing?

Every so often I hear people declare, ‘he’s really creative’ or ‘she’s got a great imagination.’ I’ve often wondered what exactly they mean by this. What is being creative or what is happening when we use our imagination? Interesting, isn’t it? We take these two words for granted, and we all know what they mean, but just what is happening when we use our imagination and are being creative is rarely discussed.

Over the weekend, we were out with the family for dinner. My ten-year-old granddaughter, Hailey, started filling in all the games restaurants provide to keep young people amused while they wait for their meals. She had soon worked out the answers to the crossword and found all the words in the word finder. Then she diligently finished some colouring in. She turned over the pages to see if there were more activities. There were none. She started to fidget so I suggested she write a story. She took a crayon and pressed the tip into the page leaving a brown mark, then looked at me quizzically.

‘What shall I write?’ she asked.

‘What is your favourite thing right now?’ I asked.

A smile filled her face as she announced, ‘horses.’ She issued the word as a question and held her head to one side.

‘Right, let’s write a story about a horse.’

And away we went. She had two horses who were friends, Shadrach and Silver. Both were going to the rodeo but ‘Shadrach’ injured a hoof and had to stay behind, making both horses very sad. By the time the story was over, Shadrach was on his way to the pet food factory and travelling down the conveyor belt to the huge revolving blade that would saw him in half. Just as he reached the blade, his friend jumped through the window and rescued him. Next time, they went to the rodeo together and our two horses were bucking fat ladies and men up into trees where they got stuck and . . . . Well I leave you to take the story wherever your imagination takes it. By the time Hailey had finished, she was giggling and chortling loudly.

Albert Einstein said, ‘Creativity is intelligence having fun.’

While I don’t understand E=MC2, I do agree with him on this. So again what is it that makes creativity and imagination work together to generate something new and unexpected?

Here are my thoughts and I welcome other people’s ideas.

For imagination to flourish, we need to clear our minds of those thoughts that might sabotage the creative process. So thoughts of other people’s misdeeds or shortcomings cannot co-exist with imagination. Neither can the misfortunes that befall us as a natural consequence of being alive become so all-consuming that we can think of nothing else. Self-pity has no place in the creative imagination. That is, unless it is inspiring us to explore worlds beyond it and to create alternative worlds. In which case, they can be allowed to hover in a corner along with all the other possibilities under consideration.

Imagination loves a calm mind. Seeds embed themselves in a calm mind and ideas take shape. When a mind is clear of the daily thoughts that fill it, others flow in to fill the vacuum. These are usually good ideas taking shape under the auspices of the imagination. It is as if the mind lies dormant and forgotten and in that state fills up with the detritus of daily living. Once that clutter is cleared away, the mind becomes like a stream with a dam removed.

In my imagination, I see the dam made from sticks, mud, rocks and rubbish - the usual agricultural run-off and of modern living: plastic bags, bottles etc. It is not a sculpted dam such as a beaver might build but rather a random affair that has grown out of the rubbish in the environment. That is why I find the imagination and the creative process so inspiring. It removes us from the pollution of everyday life and allows our minds to be refreshed by thoughts that lift our spirits and can even make us laugh when we least feel like it.

Telling a story with a child is the perfect way to rediscover our creativity and imaginations. Children are not limited by thoughts of what is ‘real’ or ‘unreal.’ It is all the same to them.

For a time, Hailey took me from my business concerns to another place where our imaginations could frolic unobstructed by negative thoughts and fears. And that’s how imagination works also. If we don’t fill it with good things to think about, it will fill up with all the anxieties, imagined slights and pointless fears.