Cityville – so not for the creative thinking inclined.

What were they thinking when they created Cityville on facebook? “Let’s show people how to do what they are told and if they don’t they are held back.” ? Sounds a lot like a school system I was once in.  Sounds a lot like a corporate system I was once in.  (Heck, sounds a lot like the reason I am a coach helping others get past those barriers and block built into our systems!)

Seriously, aren’t we trying to change that?… aren’t we trying to create a world of more conscious people making choices that come from the soul, not from City Hall?   Nope, not so on Cityville. If you don’t meet their preset goals  then you’re screwed.  You can’t add more pretty little houses unless you add the city hall, post office and the police station.  And if you add those you either pay to staff them or you invite friends.  I don’t want a police station. Or a city hall.  A post office is fine.  I want a little community of co-creators that don’t require police enforcement.  I don’t want to be bribed by the logger so that he will vote for me for mayor.  Yes, it’s true.  The logger is promising to vote for me if I chop down trees.  

And not only that, as you ‘harvest’ your rent, crops or coffee shop (all with one cursor)  if you accidently hit a tree. you chop it down. And chopping down trees gives you points.  And if you don’t chop down trees, you don’t meet goals and can’t go forward.  uh.  Did the designers miss the environmental  wave of thought that’s happening around the real world?

 Okay, so clearly I won’t last long on Cityville.  Curiousity got me there.  My curious streak about how people think, how they create, and what inspires them makes me interested in these popular games, their design and what inspires people to play them.  I am  befuddled by cityville. The whole concept seems ‘old school.’

 I think it would be fun to make a very creative and unique community on Cityville, but the option doesn’t exist. To play I have to follow their goals and rules.  And chop down trees.  Sheesh.

Dang, I wish I had the skills to create a facebook game.  It would be such a creative and magical adventure.   Imagine!  It would attract the smaller percentage that are seekers, changers, creators – what an intriguing ‘imaginary community’ that would be!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

 

“Faeries”, whispers potter, “let’s help to share this beautiful message.. Look? You’re in it!”   Faeries giggle. Potter realizes that really it was them that inspired her to include this.  They are like that sometimes.  Note: for those who don’t know me well, Faeries play in my clay and call me Potter.
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Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

 DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
(source)

The Magic of Creativity

Creativity…  For me, it is blissful to witness a world that is evolving to recognize the power of our creative being.   Like magic dust finding its way into all nooks and crannies, those who were once considered ‘ordinary mortals’ are now experiencing moments, discoveries and creations that leave them breathless saying, “YES! YES!… but wait a sec, where’d that come from?”

We all know the stories of ‘elite’ genius minds, artists and writers, and their ability to be in a space where brilliant thoughts, ideas, inventions, answers, artwork and stories ‘come to them.”  When asked how these creators got the idea, they often answer, “I don’t know.” or “From God.” or “From spirit.” 
We’ve heard the stories of Da Vinci and Einstein and we’ve commented in awe, “Gifted.”

As we move from the Age of Information to the Age of Conceptualization and Creativity, more and more research, resources and stories are appearing that give credit and value to the creative being in each of us.  Yes, we are all gifted.  We simply need to find our best way to access our creative soulful brilliance.

And that access– whether it be through making art, thinking differently, writing, storytelling, dancing, yoga, playing, using our imagination, singing, visualizing and/or  taking meditative journeys – opens the door to the intuitive, wise, gifted and magical self.  Yes, magical. With ‘magical’ meaning “making the impossible possible.”

I, for one, am gloriously happy that finally.. FINALLY.. the word ‘creativity’  gets to take on its full meaning.  And that soon, when people see the word “creativity’ their first response will no longer be “I haven’t got a creative bone in my body.”  Last I heard we all have a right brain.  And I think that the more creativity is given its value, the more people will realize “Hey, I’ve always been creative… and it’s okay to spend more time with that.”

Simply by reading this and pondering the concept, you have opened a door of awareness and possibility. You might not even notice as old belief systems that have limited you start to melt away.  By reading this, you have taken a step in your pursuit of your unlimited potential as a soulful being.
That was easy enough, wasn’t it?  Yes, it’s all so much simpler than people think.

Christmas is a magical time of year.  Have you noticed how much creativity plays a part in the celebration?  Storytelling, theatre, baking, singing, crafting, decorating…. perhaps we have always naturally known a way to be open to the magic.

a little random poem

Here’s to movies and mindless

Painting and timeless

Storytelling and escape

Nature and starscapes

Here to tired, and to flying

Showing up and to sighing

And to each miniscule move of a child..

            The tweek of their cheek,

Big stairs and tiny feet

Here’s to mud and it’s call

Here’s to good news

Here’s to voicelessness not mattering,

Here’s to more mud and it’s splattering.