Okay, I needed something quick to illustrate my point. The painting I’d been working on was getting too serious anyway, so here she is channeling Salvador Dali. (Not to worry, she can always shave!)
Sometimes, as he was growing up, I would say to my son, the now Dr. Hyatt E. Moore iv, “Hyatt, you need to learn creativity.”
It’s not like I had a ready answer as to how, I was just letting him know of its importance. I felt it wasn’t something he’d get much in school with all the emphasis on passing tests. He was good at that, but the rest he’d have to teach himself.
Changing subjects here (but not really), one time, in the car, he surprised me with, “Dad, how do you be funny?”
We’d been at a youth event and I’d been called on for some spontaneous ad lib and got lots of good laughs all around. That’s what prompted Hyatt’s question on the way home.
My first thought was, “Boy, this kid is too analytical!” My second was,“If you have to ask, you can’t do it.” But I said neither.
“Humor,” I quickly thought up, “is the collision of two things that don’t go together. What’s produced is a small explosion, or a large one, of laughter.”
“It’s the making-no-sense acting like it does that makes things funny.”
Brief example, last week my super creative niece April visiting from St. Louis, asked: “How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?”
Answer: “Change?”
She could make the joke on herself, being the daughter of a Lutheran pastor.
Back to my definition of humor, I’m aware that it is awfully rational for something that’s all about irrationality, but it seemed to work for the moment. It was later, when I saw him rollicking with his friends with brilliant quips back and forth that I saw he’d done it . . . he’d learned the creativity of humor.
So here’s the connection: Humor is the putting of two unlike things together, and creativity is putting two unlike things together. They both operate the same way.
And, more: One is exercise for the other.
Creativity, to me, is basically problem solving. If you’re not afraid to bring something completely different into the problem’s equation, then you’re solving it creatively.
Super-creative thinking is inventive thinking, where you think up the problem in the first place . . . and then go to work on solving it.
I’m a painter. Every blank canvas is another exercise in all this . . . thinking up some problem and then working to solve it. But I’m not only a painter. I like to think the exercise cuts across all matters of life. For all of us.
Young Hyatt’s strengths, it turned out, were mathematical. He went on with education after education finally earning his PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford. It’s all math, and the way he does it, very creative. Now he’s doing problem solving all day long.
So there it is. Whether it’s in the arts or the sciences . . . or just life . . . creativity is the extra ingredient.
It can be constantly developed. Just start with a little humor.
It’ll strengthen those biceps in the brain . . . and it’ll lighten your day.
________
PS A friend suggested things could be more interesting if I respond back on your comments. So I did last time, see “Color.“
Our Lives Together
Its About Life
11:52 am
Thank you. So good. Humor for me is the tickling of tragedy.
12:03 pm
Perfect, Phil, especially from one who writes plays, does spoken word, and sees the delightful irony of everything, from Colorado to who knows where!
12:31 pm
I never thought of the two together in that way. Funny, this humor stuff.
7:20 pm
Thanks, Ashley, for making that suggestion in the ps. Hope many see your poetic new blog: https://riverchildministries.com/?p=280
1:45 pm
Have you seen any of John Weiss’ paintings, Hyatt, and also his very humorous cartoons of himself as an artist and now retired police chief who lives in CA? He’s got some real humor going on! johnpweiss.com If you don’t know about him, check him out. He does a blog on FASO. So glad you’ve written about humor. It’s one of the important staples of life and there’s nothing like a real good laugh…….Suszanne
3:04 pm
I checked him out. He’s a real talent. And a retired police chief? So many things a person can do.
4:26 pm
But why the mustache?
7:09 pm
Hyatt, you’re too funny! PS I completely repainted that painting after. Now she’s blond . . . and clean shaved.
5:10 pm
Ha! Now that’s a new take. When in the classroom, my 6th graders were just beginning to “get” higher level humor, and thought they were so, so cool. Once we were studying old English proverbs and “you can’t have your cake and eat it too,” … once you eat your cake, well… So, one of the young lads came to class and told us a story of a pioneer who was on an icy lake in his canoe, quite cold, and decided to build a fire and get himself warm. Obviously, this didn’t work. Fire burnt right through, and down he went. The moral was, “You can’t have your kayak and heat it too.” That young man, to this day, remembers the moments that followed, gut-splitting laughter that could be heard all the way to the office. Now that was creativity!
7:09 pm
Beautiful. Perfect.
7:39 am
Well, you KNEW I had to respond to this one. What a good analysis of humor and creativity! It really made me think. I actually realized that some of the funniest people I know are also some of the most intelligent. I agree that there is a strong connection between creativity and humor. Although, you can be creative and not funny, but you can’t be funny and not creative. I read a very interesting article in the New Yorker about humor. Here’s the link: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/a-quest-to-understand-what-makes-things-funny
P.S. We’re going to have a blast in Egypt!!
3:02 pm
Once again, my thoughts are meaningfully augmented by a commenter . . . and this one from among the most humorous (and deep) speakers and teachers I know (besides my sister Sue). And yes, we’ll blast them in Cairo. (Maybe not a good joke.)
11:06 pm
Love this Hyatt…and desperately needed in China!
In the past 5 years I’ve had opportunity to work with management teams of dozens of companies, and speak with hundreds of university students. Three things are noticeably absent: innovative thinking, ability to do basic problem solving and humor!
However the rate of change in China is staggering…in short order many are quickly shifting from a fear-based, command and control management style (stifles creativity and innovation) to encouraging people to take risks, try different paths to a solution…and even crack a joke once in awhile.
China is moving from simply copying others, to now leading innovation with hundreds R&D centers throughout the country.
It’s working. I’m reminded of this every time I get on one of their high-speed trains that go +200 mph!
Have enjoyed the flow of your blog – looking forward to more!
6:54 am
Wow, Tim. You’re really seeing the cultural differences at the core, and how they make differences in the result. Important stuff, all this. Great that you’re spreading your influence where you are.