Saturday, October 31, 2009

MAN AND CREATION ( Lucian Blaga )

When they think of creation, most people have in mind genius artists, musicians, painters or sculptors or scientists whose inventions had a true value for mankind.
The more people are “touched” by the creation, the more important the creation is considered. The best example is that of musicians like Mozart whose creation has touched the souls of billions of people and will continue to do so.
People do not generally pay a lot of attention to the person behind the creation or to the act of creation itself. Then another creator, director Milos Forman, creates a movie, Amadeus, and he unvails the man behind the creation. We then have a picture of what creation meant to Mozart together with all other aspects of his life, family, friends, social life. We wonder what was the drive allowing him to forget everything around him while he was creating. We can guess that this creation drive originated in his intuition that he may “touch” an impressive number of people and this surpassed everything else.
It may be that, as Einstein said “he was moving the centre of gravity....in search of peace and stability..”. We will never know how much pain Mozart endured because of life misery or how happy he was as a creator.
Should Mozart have been our contemporary, would he have endured the same miseries, we may ask. Would he have received material compensation as recognition for his creation?
Such creators have allowed us, common people, to understand creation as the joy to create something for the sake of others, be they many or few.
Daniel Goleman has a very interesting definition of creation. He calls it “a state of trance” when our dedication is complete. Ordinary people have come to realize that, no matter how small a thing may be, when they invest themselves completely while achieving it, they too become creators. A great poet said “MAN’S DESTINY IS CREATION”.
A child who pays his full, enthusiastic attention while playing, is a simple example of creator. Adults too can create, as they reach a number of people in their lives. We can create a harmonious family, or we can create in our profession. We can be a teacher who teaches a child to learn instead of memorize. We can be a medical doctor, an IT specialist, a carpenter or a farmer who enjoys his work and shares his knowledge.
People are aware of a person who joyfully shares his knowledge. People love those who take joy in doing something, rather than those who know best how to do something. We can create our own collections (stamps, drawings). We can create the joy in practicing a sport (golf or birdwatching). We can create the joy to travel or to read or to surf the internet.
It is also possible that we do not create anything, not even the wealth of our families because we do not have the basic instrument: knowledge.
Knowledge means power, access to the information that allows creation: our own creation as individuals who are touched by others’ creation and our product offer that can “touch” others.
But each person is unique, has his own self knowledge, knowledge of his creation and of the environment, as creation of the society.
This is where the internet comes in. I would call it the eighth wonder of the world, though I would rank it first as importance and social impact. We cannot see it but we feel it and it offers the most valuable asset: information.
Information is the only resource that cannot be lost. As the president of Google puts it “internet will obviously influence elections because internet recalls everything that has ever been said”.
Not only that internet allows the creator and the one who wants his creation to meet, but it also makes the meeting profitable.
Internet means the world brought in your house and your “creation” offered to the world. Internet has changed the world and will continue to do so because knowledge is wealth.
Author Lazar Valentina jan 2007 All rights reserved

A PHILOSOPHY TEACHER

A philosophy teacher stood in front of the classroom having on his desk some objects
When the class started, without saying a word, he took an empty mayonnaise jar and filled it with golf balls. He asked his students whether the jar was full and they agreed it was.
The teacher took then a box with tiny stones and poured it into the jar, shaking it gently. The small stones filled the gaps between the golf balls. He asked again the students whether the jar was full and they agreed it was.
The teacher took after this a box with sand and poured it in the jar. Normally, the sand filled the jar completely.
He asked again his students what they thought about it and they all answered in one voice ‘fuuuuull’.
So he took from under his desk two cups of coffee which he poured in the jar filling it entirely this time. The students laughed.
‘Now’, the teacher said when laughs cooled down, ‘I would like you to understand that this jar is your life. The golf balls are those important things in your life: family, kids, health, friends and passions. Even if you lost everything else except for these things, your life would still be full. Tiny stones are the other things which matter for you: job, house, car, and the sand is the rest of small things. If you will start by pouring the sand, he continued, there will not be much place left for the golf balls and the tiny stones. It goes the same for life, if you waste your time and energy for tiny things, you will not have much time left for those things which are really important for you. Pay attention to those things that are important for your happiness. Play with your children, check your health regularly, take your spouse out for dinner, play golf and don’t worry, there will be enough time for you to clean the house or repair who knows what kind of device.
Take care first of the golf balls, they are the ones that really count.
Set up priorities, the rest is only sand.
One of the students raised his hand and asked what was the meaning of the two cups of coffee. The teacher smiled: ‘I’m glad you asked it, they just mean that, no matter how full your life may seem, there will always be some place left for two cups of coffee to share with a friend.’
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