While the United States’ Thanksgiving didn’t become an official holiday until Lincoln declared it such in 1863, the idea of being grateful and giving thanks as a community goes back to the early settlers of our country and that several days of feasting by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag in 1621.
The occasion for the feasting was to celebrate the community’s survival through the winter of their arrival, the mud and planting of spring, the tending of the crops through summer, and finally, the reward of the harvest.
In addition to the lessons of hard work and gratefulness that the Pilgrims teach us, there are other lessons to be learned as well, at least three of which can apply to our creativity:
- Don’t be afraid to try something new. Can you imagine the courage to risk crossing an ocean and carve out a life in the wilderness? In order to survive in the New World, the Pilgrims had to be willing to repeatedly try new ways of doing things, whether it was how to hunt game, grow and prepare corn, or deal with neighbors of a totally different culture, language and ethnicity. If they had been inflexible in their attitudes and approach, they probably would have never lived long enough to celebrate with that feast. The lesson for creatives is to be constantly willing to test boundaries, beliefs, and even methods for doing creative work. Work up the courage to risk new ideas such as painting on a larger canvas or writing a scene using a tarot card as an idea for the conflict.
- Ask for help. The Pilgrims would have had a hard time surviving that first winter and growing the abundant harvest they did the following summer without the help and advice of the Wampanoag. Too much pride or too strong a sense of independence could have meant their doom. Creatives are often solitary, independent sorts and often forget how much fun, how inspiring it can be to work in collaboration with others, or how much easier it is to stay motivated with the help and advice of peers or a coach. So when challenges arise, when doing it alone seems too exhausting to contemplate…ask for help.
- Take time to celebrate. The Pilgrims obviously knew the meaning of hard work otherwise they wouldn’t have built those seven homes, a common meeting house, and three storehouses that first year. Without commitment and hard work, they would not have had the abundant harvest to see them through another winter. But after the hard work, after trying new things and asking for help, they took time to celebrate their accomplishments and to share the celebration with their neighbors and helpers, the Wampanoag. Take time to celebrate your hard creative work. Remember to take breaks from writing or painting or coaching to share a glass of wine with a friend, or to invite neighbors over for a barbeque. And when the harvest comes in…when you’ve published that book or finished that program, the sense of joy, pride and accomplishment is enlarged and enhanced when shared with others.
The Pilgrims are a great model for creatives because, after all, they were inspired by a vision, they moved past blocks and challenges, and they continued to take action in a way that created for themselves a new life.
Inspiration, breakthrough, creation by trying new things, asking for help, and taking time to celebrate.
Great lessons from those hardy Pilgrims.