Abstract
No, life is not always steady and predictable. We can become increasingly sensitive to a world of creative tip** points. Included are, from Chaos Theory, the “Butterfly Effects” of our lives. Creative insight itself is likely one of these. With some of the background flickers of our days, we may not even notice. Others can be larger, a rare one momentous, shifting lives, even changing worlds. A vignette provides an example of the latter. Like a martial artist, the creator can work with this flux, sensing energies and balance, at times to tweak, advance, divert, or even to transform events.
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
All for the want of a horseshoe-nail.
Benjamin Franklin
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Notes
- 1.
Gleick, Chaos, 22.
- 2.
Sources include Peat, Blackbird Night, Kerouac , Dharma Bums, Ellsberg, Secrets, The Most Dangerous Man in America—Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary, Directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith). Admittedly, there are people, including some I know, who judge these events rather differently. The reader is asked, whatever your preferences or predilections, first to view this as a profound example of bifurcation, or The Butterfly Effect, a ripple effect that changed the world.
- 3.
Most Dangerous Man in America (Video). If you believe there is no one absolute right or wrong, consider if there can be room for fruitful discussion of actions and alternatives in such a harmful and deceptive situation, recalling forces were alerted about “the most dangerous man in America.” The film shows conditions that led to a brave step at great personal cost: major newspapers also took risks. I believe we can all benefit from dialogue in a larger context about criteria for ethical behavior. Do note Saybrook University awarded Daniel Ellsberg the Rollo May Prize for his courageous work.
- 4.
Policy decisions can emerge, sometimes deceptively, from a powerful few. See Pilisuk, Hidden Structure of Violence.
- 5.
The New York Times first published sections, later The Washington Post.
- 6.
Nevada City is in California.
- 7.
Burns and Novick, The Vietnam War (10-part documentary that premiered in September 2017 on PBS).
- 8.
We can do is what we believe is right. At times it may not do much at all. At others—and especially in conjunction with like-minded others—there can be a tip** point. It might change everything.
- 9.
Richards, Everyday Creativity: Co** and Thriving in the 21st Century, 190–192.
- 10.
For many of us, the example above is tribute to courage, the human spirit, defense of human rights, democracy, and the willingness to take enormous risks to follow one’s ethical imperatives for a greater good. Others, for their own reasons, would not have proceeded this way, and have commented to me on this material. Yet wherever one’s view, here is a critical moment the Aikido Master would have seen as an opportunity. Example of an Aha! Moment.
- 11.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.
- 12.
Richards, Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature.
- 13.
Dobzhansky, Mankind Evolving.
- 14.
Kinney, Richards, Southam, “Assessing Everyday Creativity…”
- 15.
Richards, “Twelve Potential Benefits…”, 290. Healthy benefits are best seen in Table 13, then each discussed.
- 16.
Csikszentimihaly, Creativity, 110.
- 17.
Guastello, Koopmans, Pincus, Chaos and Complexity in Psychology.
- 18.
Abraham, “The Dynamics of Creativity and the Courage to Be”; Richards, “Everyday Creativity.”
- 19.
Kozbelt, Beghetto, and Runco, “Theories of Creativity,” 34.
- 20.
Skarda and Freeman, “How Brains Make Chaos in Order to Make Sense of the World.”
- 21.
Guastello, Koopmans, Pincus, Chaos and Complexity in Psychology.
- 22.
Damasio in Richards, “Everyday Creativity,” 200; also see Chap. 9.
- 23.
Surangama Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra—moment when sensory experience leads to spiritual enlightenment.
- 24.
Richards, “New Aesthetic for Environmental Awareness.”
- 25.
Maslow, Farther Reaches of Human Nature; Loori, Zen of Creativity.
- 26.
Silvia, “Creativity is Undefinable, Controllable, and Everywhere.” Includes importance of everyday sampling.
- 27.
Abraham, “The Dynamics of Creativity and the Courage to Be.”
- 28.
Guastello and Liebovitch, “Introduction to Nonlinear Dynamics and Complexity,” 1.
- 29.
Combs, “Consciousness: Chaotic and Strangely Attractive,” 404.
- 30.
Richards, “Relational Creativity and Healing Potential,” 301.
- 31.
Roszak, Gomes, and Kanner, eds. Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind.
- 32.
Kolbert, Sixth Extinction.
- 33.
Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
- 34.
Goerner, “Chaos and Deep Ecolory,” 3.
- 35.
Rao, Consciousness Studies: Cross-Cultural Perspectives.
- 36.
With self-organization and emergence, we can have negative results—but since the outcome is unknown, there is a chance as well for hope and progress and understanding.
- 37.
Dostoevsky in Dobzhansky, Mankind Evolving, 339. See later, for discussion of beauty.
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Richards, R. (2018). Moments of Insight. In: Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55766-7_5
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