Do You Take Your Creative Work Out for Dinner and a Dance?
I witnessed part of an interesting ritual the other night.
No, it wasn’t on the History Channel or in the National Geographic. It was in a restaurant near my aunt’s home where I am staying while helping out my son and daughter-in-law with their new baby.
After we were seated at our table, my aunt and I noticed a large group of fathers and daughters seated against one wall of the restaurant. The daughters sat on the green vinyl banquette that stretched the entire length of the wall, and the fathers lined up protectively in chairs across from them, about eight in all.
The fathers were dressed mostly in suits and ties. Many of the girls, around ages 8-10, wore long fancy dresses. A few even had tiara-like headbands in their hair. It turns out that there was a Girl Scout Father/Daughter dance at a school across the street that night and the dads decided to take their daughters out to dinner first.
I wondered how this seemingly simple yet powerful ritual would influence the expectations of these daughters when they were old enough to date. Would these girls grow into young women who valued themselves and expected others to do the same, as their fathers did that night? Worthy of caring and generosity, of courtesy and protection? As precious?
It made me think about the power of ritual to affect our beliefs about the value of our creativity.
I’ve seen parents who take their children’s art and have it matted and framed and hung somewhere in their homes, signifying to one and all that, yes, this is beautiful creative work, no matter that it was done by an untrained artist of 5. This work is special. This work is precious.
What if we had a ritual that always acknowledged how special and precious our creativity is—even the work that is immature, undeveloped, and imperfect, yet filled with promise?
Whether or not you grew up with rituals that supported your creativity, there is nothing to keep you from designing a ritual now, is there? So, think…what can you do to honor your creativity regardless of its level of development or maturity?
Do you need to print out your latest poems in a beautiful font and frame them, or record your latest composition and then listen to it as you sit sipping a cup of tea in the morning sun? Does that sculpture need to take center stage in your living room…or do you?
A lovely ritual that is the equivalent of putting on the long gown and the tiara is to create an altar for your work. This would be the place at the end of the day, to hang that poem or drawing or photograph, to set a new sculpture or a few pages of your manuscript. The altar would make your work feel special, for an evening or a day or a week.
I’m not saying to treat every word or sketch or note like gold…exactly. But do honor the efforts. Honor the pieces that don’t work for what they teach you, just as you honor the ones that do work. Don’t ignore your creative efforts, no matter how successful or not.
And, on occasion, take your work out for dinner and a dance. Let it dress in a fancy gown and tiara… Honor it as something worthy of caring and generosity, of courtesy and protection. As something precious.
Remember, those fathers that evening were honoring both the girls that their daughters were AND the young women those daughters would someday become.
Can you do any less for your creative work?