Today was not Bruno's first trip to the park. The dog park is located just one street down from Midwestern University- where my fiance (Kristin) attends medical school- so she has been been brining Bruno to the park for weeks now. I've been meaning to bring Bruno there myself, but since W.P. Carey assassinated my free time, I have not had the time to swing over there with him. But today was special. Today was Bruno's first birthday. Needless to say, I left work ASAP in order to beat traffic so that Kristin and I could spend our evening with our baby. The birthday festivities began with a trip to the dog park, followed by a trip to Pet Market where we bought Bruno an ASU jersey, and concluded with a home cooked meal of grilled chicken, brown rice, and vegetables.
"Great Justin- you love your dog, we already knew that. Why did you decide to waste your time with a journal posting?"
I'm glad you asked! The key take away (creativity wise) from Bruno's birthday was my experience at the dog park. To put it bluntly, I LOVED the dog park. Maybe even more than Bruno did. Watching Bruno run at max speed to and from; being outside on a beautiful valley evening with our baby; watching Bruno interact with the other dogs; and admiring all of the other dogs in the park. There really wasn't anything that I didn't enjoy about the whole experience.
"Ok Justin- you love spending time with Bruno and your obsession with dogs is kind of strange, but why the journal posting?"
OK, OK, I'll get to the point. What I took from the experience is that everyone should have a place to free their mind, to relax, and to allow creativity to come about. I'm not quite sure if the dog park is that place for me, but it certainly had some of the characteristics I would expect from such a location. In fact, I'm not quite sure what characteristics such a place would have, but I can think of a few locations where creativity might prosper:
- the beach (any time of day, but the quieter the better)
- a tavern with character
- a park on a beautiful day
- somewhere distant (not necessarily unfamiliar, just relatively far away from your normal routine)
- a densely-to-moderately populated urban area where you can easily blend in
- anywhere beautiful
What do all of these places have in common? Everything and nothing! You can be creative somewhere that provides solitude or a place where people can't help but bump into each other. You can be creative when you're surrounded by nature's beauty or at the local tavern where you may not be surrounded by beauty, but at least you're around some familiar faces. You can be creative five minutes from your home or at in neighboring town accessible primarily by spontaneous road trip. An individual can be creative anywhere; but it doesn't hurt for one to know what environments foster their imaginative thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment