EXCERPT FROM IGNITE YOUR IDEAS: CREATIVITY FOR KIDS (pp. 5-7)
A little creativity can impact or improve the way you think about and view things, and how your day or week might unfold, making it more interesting and fun.
Points of View
Here’s an example of how creativity can be a game changer.
You’ve seen the moon in its various forms (crescent, half, full, bright, partly covered, and so on), and you may have thought about what it might be like to see it from space, or to walk across its surface one day. Astronaut Frank Borman (Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission that orbited the moon, in December 1968), described the moon like this:
“It’s a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone. And it certainly does not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work.”
Well, that’s that.
Or is it?
We can think of the moon (or even Earth), as dull or gloomy or scary—or enticing! It has also been described as haunting, mesmerizing, and mystical. Depending on our vantage point, the moon may appear small or large, colorful or bleak, yellow or orange, smooth or lumpy, or even mysteriously facial-like. Indeed, author Margaret Atwood captures this sort of variability in one sentence.
“Reality simply consists of different points of view.”
Practicalities
So, when it comes to everyday occurrences, and how you look at the realities of life, what is your point of view? You have the option to change up how you observe, experience, and think. You can get close or stay distanced. You can be explicit and matter-of-fact (like Borman was in the quote above), or mildy or wildly expressive about what you see, whether it’s the light of the moon or something else. There are so many options open to you.
Your thoughts and viewpoints are a bit like a multitude of firecrackers ready to burst outward into the stratosphere!
How can you boost your perspectives and ideas so they’re more fulfilling, fresh, thrilling, or enjoyable? There’s really no limit to possibilities for imaginative wanderings, or the creation of ideas and concepts. (Sometimes referred to as ideation.) If you want to bring ideas to life you have to generate, select, and develop them—which takes time and effort. But seeing an idea go from a tiny glint to a glimmery gleam (or a bland moonscape to a beguiling one) can be motivating and intriguing!
