It’s hard to believe that my creativity blog is already a year old! Producing three posts a month has been exciting, invigorating, and challenging. As the second year of the blog begins, it’s an ideal time to look both backward and forward. The Pre-Launch My… Read More »A Year in the Life of Creativity
Photography purposefully lies and inadvertently tells the truth, and on the spectrum between, there is an abundance of creativity. I have loved to take pictures since I was a child. I have never taken a photography class, so all that I know I have learned… Read More »Photography, Memory, and the Art of Editing
Does anyone like grades? Students… teachers… anybody? In my 24 years as an educator, I have never come across anyone who more than tolerates them. They are, however, a reality for many at this time of year. This semester, after weeks of grading papers and… Read More »Of Popcorn, Beer, and Final Grades
I love pomander balls. I love the way they look and smell, and I love the process of making them. I have written recently about how I discovered pomander balls and came to think of them as the perfect reflection of my personal tastes. My… Read More »A Craft Undone: The Unmaking of a Pomander
Children are inherently imaginative, and taking their lead often results in more creative living. One way that children exhibit creativity is in their boundless capacity for personalization. Children inherently personalize their play and possessions. If a child likes superheroes, ballet, and the Wild West, there… Read More »The Path of Personalization and Praise for the Pomander
One fall semester when I was teaching at a college in Minnesota, I had a particularly chatty group of students in my intermediate Spanish course. During the first few minutes of class, we would speak in Spanish about everyday subjects as a way of warming… Read More »How Many Languages Does Your Jell-O Salad Speak?
As the weather starts to turn cold in much of the northern hemisphere, thoughts move toward the many late fall and winter holidays. In this practical post I explore ways of infusing our holiday celebrations with more imagination. Whether you celebrate Halloween or the Days… Read More »Renewing Rituals: Creativity and Holiday Traditions
I always wanted to have a personal ghost story. As a child I was fascinated (and a bit frightened) whenever anyone retold a supernatural experience. But things as they were, I had made it to the age of twenty without an encounter. Then one day… Read More »Absaraka Fright Night: A (Mostly) True Ghost Story
There is a popular misconception that Liberal Arts degrees do not provide a good return on the investment, even though most studies comparing Liberal Arts majors to other programs of study show otherwise. It is well known that the CEOs of many top U.S. companies… Read More »Liberal Arts for Creativity and Career
U.S. culture has an obsession with being the best. It loves “Top Ten” lists of everything from music to movies to motor oil. With all the focus on being at the top, much of what isn’t ranked highly on those subjective lists fades into oblivion,… Read More »Stars of the Second Tier: Creativity on the B-Team