Creation/ Destruction

Thinky thoughts today about creativity and destructiveness and how they work in our world. One is so easy and the other so hard. And yet, I see people around me being creative all the time (against all odds), so why does our media only predominantly tell stories of destructiveness.

It takes a lot of energy to create something. Whether it’s a technological advancement, a new policy, a house, a piece of art, a book, or just personal self-esteem – the act of creation takes energy and effort.

It takes a single moment to destroy that something. Whether by violence, cynicism, a cruel word, a swipe of the hand, or just neglect – the act of destruction takes neither intelligence nor real work.

Human creativity takes patience, determination, courage, boldness.
Human destructiveness takes ignorance, cowardice, mean-spiritedness, weakness.

An old-growth tree can take millennia to evolve, hundreds of years to grow, an hour to cut down.
A person’s self-esteem can take a lifetime to build, years of loving care to foster, one thoughtless or mean comment to undermine.
A book can take a lifetime to gestate, years to work through, a half a day to critique.
An individual is a one-off result of millennia of human evolution and universal creative action. They take a moment to kill.

One is the easy path. It requires minimal effort. It brings immediate satisfaction. It requires no imagination: “I am rage or ennui or cynicism. Hear me tear down.”

The other is a hard path. It requires self-awareness and responsibility. Commitment and determination. A willingness to put yourself out there. A willingness to be wrong: “I am work and sweat and effort. Hear me try hard.”

So why is it that we care more about the story of the person who did the shooting, or the person who failed, or the thing that doesn’t look like we want it to? There’s something infinitely more interesting happening all around us all the time – people quietly, and not so quietly in the case of an impro jam, going about the job of creating things. Despite the fact that we know that somewhere along the line someone will come past who through anger or defensiveness or sheer boredom will want to destroy our creations – we do it anyway.

Isn’t that the news story of the century? Isn’t that the real human triumph?

Just a thought.