Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Welcome to my Blog

Hi everyone and welcome to the Curious and the Creative.

The title of the blog sums up a bit of my focus on life. My wife, Jennifer always comments that I have an indelibly curious mind and most of what goes on inside my mind  is mostly focused on the creative side of life. I hope this blog will cover  both curiosity and creativity and I love feedback so please feel free to comment.

First thought:
In most good books about Christian Aesthetics (aside from Madeline L'engle's Walking on Water, which is a good book about Christian Aesthetics but contains none of the following) the authors almost always start by framing the current issues that exist in culture and the arts, both Christian and Non-Christian (though many of these authors deal more with the Christians because it seems they perceive the issues in arts and Christianity to be perpetuated by Christians). This makes perfect sense because when one is trying to defend a point of view, one very often tries to frame the issue and offer their unique point of view on the issue.

However, I believe that framing the "problem" - or issue - sometimes closes the door on conversation. If someone is passionate about the "problem" and sits on the other side of that debate than you are, there won't be mush conversing taking place.

I would like to suggest an option. I would like to suggest that an author should present the solution rather than the problem. This does a couple wonderful things. 1) It opens doors to conversation, it invites people into the process with you instead of setting up an adversarial interaction. 2) It STILL frames the "problem". By framing the solution, you get your point of view across on the issue even more clearly because of your spin on how the problem can be fixed. 3) It is incredibly optimistic. People dig solutions, they like them because they speak of action, excitement and mission. 4) It is a segue to a life mission. A solution on how Christianity can be the hope of the future in the arts and therefore culture, for instance, is a springboard where major ideation and futurist thinking can happen. 5) It gets people involved. A solution is ACTION. An action is a plan. A plan speaks to specific ministries and gifts being used for something greater, for God's greater good.

This is a thought to ponder. It isn't specific to arts and faith either, it can be adapted to many situations in life. Problems take life, solutions give life!

No comments:

Post a Comment