pier giorgio di cicco ~ creative spirit

... if one does not stir the waters too much, one can see to the bottom of the river ...

While channel flipping Saturday afternoon, I came across a televised version of a speech which Pier Giorgio Di Cicco gave at the recent ideaCITY conference in Toronto. The way he spoke, the words he chose, and the lyrical manner in which he wove his thoughts together really struck me, drew me in. And so, I watched, and listened. And recorded every fibre of what he said that I possibly could, with my fingers and this keyboard. His sentiments seemed worthy of a blog post. And, I thought, perhaps you'd all like a break from the heaviness of recent posts. This stuff seems somewhat a lighter fare. Though, deep and meaningful, in its own way.

The word choices, the meaning conveyed ~ these belong to Di Cicco ~ I have only added words for flow purposes whenever absolutely necessary. And, I could not help my compulsion to transform the passive into the active tense whenever possible to do so without butchering the message. The ideas belong to Di Cicco, not me, I just thought the message he conveyed worth sharing. So ... read on.

FYI ~ Di Cicco is a published poet ~ you can see some of his work here. He has also published several books.

Aristotle gave us the language of dualism ~ a finite, columnar paradigm from which humans have had wrestle themselves, ever since. Human endeavour does not move from the rear ~ we're not propelled by event and causality, but called by what we're meant to be ... called by something that lies in our very teliology. We feel drawn to each other ~ we desire recognition. The global citizen awaits for a world design that inspires with implicit care. Humans want recognition, not identity. People want things to rejoice in, not things to be proud of.

We must transcend pride in any form, including idealogical wars and labels. We must transcend the branding. We cannot lever, commodify, or strategize creativity. When we treat creativity like a social capital we only succeed in diminishing it, and this erodes the element of trust. Today, a conspiracy against trust pervades societal thinking. Creativity cannot exist without trust. When we stifle creativity, we stifle primal forces that motivate humans. Creativity must be inspired, not rallied ... not branded, out of oneself.

Fracturing of agendas and ideologies cause humans to withdraw from one another. Human nature is currently being revised out of frustration, in light of confusion, out of our inability to recognize others and their sacrifices. We must read the bohemian index ~ the sullenness on people's faces! One notices the sullenness on people's faces ~ an index that must be read ~ as a real financial index. The tides of sullenness have changed, based upon the freedom of people to create, to encounter, to recognize each other. We must know how to read the psychology of the human heart. We must all learn to read deep primal desires of the human spirit. Its often not in what people do, or say even, its more visceral and primal than that. The human spirit desires delight and creativity, and these meet in moments of wonder, making for trust and mutuality.

Creativity involves recruitment of the most pedantic into the surrender of their skepticism. It's a spirituality that gets people affirming the same wonder, the same source, with shared gratitude ~ free from the caveats of stereotype and historical woundedness. It involves imagination ... seeking the grander scheme of things. The sacredness of creativity lies in its power to introduces us to a higher version of ourselves.

Today's large cities burgeon with diversity of spirit. This diversity poses the next great challenge for large cities. Citizens of a city need bonding. Creativity serves as the common spirituality of a diverse people by uniting their collective primal energies. We must begin to build cities around the elements that bring the civic heart to a place of wonder. We must learn the art of random ~ to invite spontaneity, which, in turn, will nurture creativity.

EDIT: Its the 9/11 eve as I write this edit. I'm adding this as edit, because I want to leave this post current for now ~ its positive and beautiful and inspiring. But, I did not want September 11, 2007 to pass without an acknowledgement. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth ~ but not for reasons you may think. Nonetheless, I will refrain from diminishing the memory of the dead. And just say I remembered.