When asked about his writing ability, a friend reported rather forcefully, "I'm not creative." Surprised by the thoroughness of his claim, I queried him regarding his criteria to support such a statement. Reluctantly, he admitted that he didn't really have any empirical evidence to support his claim. He grinned a sly grin when elbowed, "Then you really don't know, do you? And, it appears as though you are merely sharing a judgmental opinion about your bad self and shutting down potential talents, aren't you?" We laughed and then enjoyed a hearty discussion about relative versus absolute.

Mortimer J. Adler explains the difference between relative and absolute as follows: "The relative is that which varies with the circumstances of time and place. The absolute is that which is invariant always and everywhere." Thus, Relative Creativity is dependent upon us, while Absolute Creativity is not.

This might not sound like a big deal until one considers that some of the things we humans consider to be absolute, even after centuries of mass endorsements, very often turn out to not be.

Consider the concept of time. For centuries, time was thought to be absolutely fixed. Just as Columbus is credited with birthing a paradigm shift from a flat world to a round one, Einstein showed us that time was not flat and linear but indeed relative to mass, which could effectively bend time and make it curved. To the person on the street, Einstein explained: "...ever been on a date for hours where it seemed like only minutes flew by, and have you ever put your hand on a hot stove for two minutes and it felt like hours...well, that's relativity."

Relativity's relation to absolute gets even more interesting when reflecting on Einstein's comments about the illusion, if not arrogance, of being stuck in the familiar: "The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature." Which many a team player has heard expressed, "This is always the way its been done around here. So, if its not broken, don't fix it."

This is not to say that relativity is a bad thing, it is just that if we aren't careful, like my non-writing friend, we can get fooled into thinking in absolute terms when it's really our relativity which blinds us.

I once read a book by a priest, John T. Catoir, J.C.D., who explored this relative blindness with respect to prayers of self-judgment directed at the Creator. The author equated each life to being like a pebble entering a cosmic ocean. As the pebble journeys from the surface to the depths of a lifetime, it is precluded from ever fully knowing the experience of its ripples as they come to rest upon shores of distant banks.

Absolute Creativity, by definition, is out there beyond the relative. Believe it or not.   top