killing creativity...

Every year since 1984, The ( Technology, Entertainment and Design ), TED Conference, held annually in Monterey, is still the heart of TED. More than a thousand people now attend indeed, the event sells out a year in advance and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts, faith and religion, and the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn't work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole.

Today, TED is therefore best thought of as a global community. It's a community welcoming people from every discipline and culture who have just two things in common: they seek a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.

Below, Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says.”

Being actively involved in various creative faith projects, and all the tension that comes with that...expecially in the context of trying to do it, " in church "... viewing the video through that lens stirred up alot of emotion and questions.

The Bible is a story of " creation ". Jesus is a living revelation of the incredible redemptive imagination of God, of re-creation...of new creation. And from my experience, the " church " has not cultivated, and nurtured this incredible gift of creativity. Oh yes, I know at one time we did, but we have let it wither and die. Creativity is such a part of faith.

Is it just me...has the church lost it's creative spirit???

An Artist is like God, but small.
He can't see out of God's creation,
For it includes him.
With the seas divided,
All the animals named, and the sun and moon and stars
Set in their tracks, an artist spends his life
Not only wondering,
But wanting to work like God
With what he can command: his paints.
He tries to copy God's creations.
He tries to shape beauty with his hand.
He tries to make order out of nature.
He tries to paint the thoughts and feelings in his mind.
An artist is like God
As God created him.
Small, strong, and with limited days,
His gift of breath is spent
Over his paintbox.
Choosing and brushing his colors,
He tries to make paint sing.

M.B Goffstein

Comments

[Mich]

Lovely words that I needed to hear, right about now. Thank you for those. The video was quite timely for me, as well, as Spring Break ends and I go back for the last part of the school year.

[bradley grinnen]

i love that video. my wife and i have been following ted for years now.

[The Renegade Librarian]

Great post, Ron. I absolutely think the church has not nurtured creativity. Keep up the good work...