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Graham's Reviews > The Creative Act: A Way of Being
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
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by
Is this Rick Ruben’s magnum opus; Or, is the best still to come?
The clear message in the Creative Act � a way of being, is; creativity belongs to everyone. It starts with a warning and invitation to a new way of being. Flip to any page for nuggets or full drumsticks of wisdom. Some of the creative mechanisms are familiar and some seem downright nutty, like beating a pillow for five minutes straight. It’s kind of a self-help book that doesn’t read anything like a self-help book. Not a step-by-step recipe, but rather a set of ingredients that one combines for a variety of multi-course meals in creativity. Not something to read once, but to revisit when one is stuck. Imagine if, in notes to friends; arrangements of furniture; holidays; passion projects; family or professional life � the Creative Act was an option. Ruben reminds us that many of life’s moments present occasions for creative expressions. A way of being that can be enhanced by turning into � Source; Not a thing per se, but more of an idea-essence-active-practice. The seeds for creativity exist in abundance if we learn to seek them out. Rick Rubin has produced many of the great musical productions of our generation. In the Creative Act, Rubin has curated experiences and deep knowledge about creative practices into a charcuterie of snacks or meals that require no particular sequence. This book is fun, quirky, and complex with its many patterns, paths, crescendos, and decrescendos that might not hit you on the first read. Look again and you’ll notice there are no numbered chapters, instead 78 areas of thought about creativity. In between most of the areas of thought are pithy quotes that speak as much to sub-consciousness as they do to creativity. It doesn’t need to be read in-order from start to finish, rather each bite can stand on its own. It activates memories, marvels, and even bit of mania about what most of us have been missing. The Creative Act is a seed for more of us to pursue a way of being where creativity is the first option. This book is what many schools have lost � a guide to a way of being that is sure to produce more ways of being - An opus indeed. It will be required reading for my students.
Graham Strickert, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Environment and Sustainability
Global Institute for Water Security
University of Saskatchewan
The clear message in the Creative Act � a way of being, is; creativity belongs to everyone. It starts with a warning and invitation to a new way of being. Flip to any page for nuggets or full drumsticks of wisdom. Some of the creative mechanisms are familiar and some seem downright nutty, like beating a pillow for five minutes straight. It’s kind of a self-help book that doesn’t read anything like a self-help book. Not a step-by-step recipe, but rather a set of ingredients that one combines for a variety of multi-course meals in creativity. Not something to read once, but to revisit when one is stuck. Imagine if, in notes to friends; arrangements of furniture; holidays; passion projects; family or professional life � the Creative Act was an option. Ruben reminds us that many of life’s moments present occasions for creative expressions. A way of being that can be enhanced by turning into � Source; Not a thing per se, but more of an idea-essence-active-practice. The seeds for creativity exist in abundance if we learn to seek them out. Rick Rubin has produced many of the great musical productions of our generation. In the Creative Act, Rubin has curated experiences and deep knowledge about creative practices into a charcuterie of snacks or meals that require no particular sequence. This book is fun, quirky, and complex with its many patterns, paths, crescendos, and decrescendos that might not hit you on the first read. Look again and you’ll notice there are no numbered chapters, instead 78 areas of thought about creativity. In between most of the areas of thought are pithy quotes that speak as much to sub-consciousness as they do to creativity. It doesn’t need to be read in-order from start to finish, rather each bite can stand on its own. It activates memories, marvels, and even bit of mania about what most of us have been missing. The Creative Act is a seed for more of us to pursue a way of being where creativity is the first option. This book is what many schools have lost � a guide to a way of being that is sure to produce more ways of being - An opus indeed. It will be required reading for my students.
Graham Strickert, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Environment and Sustainability
Global Institute for Water Security
University of Saskatchewan
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Reading Progress
January 3, 2023
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Started Reading
January 16, 2023
– Shelved
January 16, 2023
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Finished Reading
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I agree with you Ross. I just started reading this collection of thoughts and I feel it needs to be approached with an open mind and heart. I experience it like a springboard for my own creative musings Like having a friend one can sit and share ideas with, providing the opening to different ways of seeing the world. Ways that are neither right nor wrong just different. This is not a DIY book. It is more a free flow of creative thinking which I find both fun and interesting.
The same is true of the cloud that "decides" when to let it rain, for it probably does this simply due to simple physical laws (evaporation, change of air temperature, gravity).
If our planet flew around the sun not along a smoothly changing every year but the same trajectory there would not be a change of seasons at all, surely there are such planets in space.
Answer please someone if it is not difficult, why these things Rick presents as something mystical