Where are you from? Where were you born? These are questions routinely asked of us and that we ask of others when we first meet. Origins inform our lives from birth to death, often in ways of which we are unaware––subtly, below the conspicuous currents of our daily lives. Well then, what about the origins of our creative lives? Of course, the obvious “parents” come to mind immediately––the literary fathers and mothers who birthed our fascination with writing. For me, they include Joseph Conrad, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Poe, Tolkien and Andre Norton. But we shouldn’t stop there. Go back farther. Explore possibilities for the origins of our creative engine that lie deeper, that precede our introduction to great writers––that predate our ability to read. Consider genetics as part of our creative heritage. We hear of musicians spawning musicians, of painters birthing writers, of writer parents of painter children and so on. Dig and one may find that some ancestor possessed a creative streak. My grandfather was a writer: I remember as a teenager my father giving me a treatise on women’s suffrage written by his father years before women achieved the right to vote in the U.S. My grandmother, a Shakespearean scholar, taught English literature in her home state of Kerala, India. They both died before I was born so I was not influenced directly by their creative talents. Nevertheless, connections exist that we cannot see. Our present location in time and space––our personal coordinate in life––is inextricably linked to where we began. Discovering our creative origins––our Big Bang––and following the trajectory of our journey to the present may help us understand where we are going in the future. And if not, well, so be it, but it’s still interesting to consider that we are part of a larger creative arc.
Cheers,
JGN
Feb 16, 2012
