It’s a privilege to sing today at this celebration of the arts. The inspiration in the air is moving folks to new growth. The creative capacity of the people is a city’s greatest resource. For me, creativity means the individual’s ability to bring into the world objects, actions or ideas that would not exist otherwise. Creativity also means, the individual’s ability to perceive and describe the world and relationships from a point of view that is unique, one-of-a-kind. It has a spiritual component. Creativity is the Purpose of an individual’s life in action.

      Many traditions consider the time, place, and community of a person’s birth to be exactly right. Each is born to bring just what the city lacked. A community that develops its own creativity, calling the Purposes of its people into full, loving relation, is the call of the celebration today. It is the call in my songs. It is the call coming through Angel House and places like it. It is the call resounding through the beauty of the earth and forest around us.

      In her award-winning book, Understanding Creativity, Dr. Jane Piirto of Ashland University offers the following suggestions to families and teachers who want to enhance creativity, their most precious commodity:

1. Provide a private place for creative work to be done.
2. Provide materials (e.g. musical instruments, sketch books).
3. Encourage and display the child’s creative work and avoid overly evaluating it.
4. Do your own creative work and let the child see you.
5. Pay attention to what your family mythology is teaching.
6. Value the creative work of others.
7. Avoid emphasizing gender-role stereotypes.
8. Provide private lessons and practice.
9. If hardship comes into your life, use the hardship positively, to encourage the child express her/himself through metaphor.
10. Emphasize that talent is only a small part of creative production and that discipline and practice are important.
11. Allow the child to be odd; avoid emphasizing socialization at the expense of creative expression.
12. Develop a creative style; use kind humor, get creativity training.