Uncle Howard, with wife in tow, rode the subway for a family get-together at the home of Dr. Gene Cohen. When they surfaced, the New York City streets were white with snow, and catching a taxi proved impossible.
Uncle Howard, a man in his seventies, pondered a bit, then suddenly said, “Let’s cross the street.” He’d spotted a pizza establishment. Moments later he’d ordered one big pizza after learning the store delivered, then asked, “Can you deliver us with it?” An amused manager agreed, and the sojourners were soon visiting with family members.
Dr. Cohen includes this and many other anecdotes in The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life. As Betty Friedan points out in a back-cover blurb: So much research has been done on decline and terminal illness and all the negative aspects of aging, and so little is known about what really happens with the [creative] process in healthy people.”
He notes that advances in public health, nutrition, medical technology and science have expanded opportunities for older people to express themselves and fulfill their creative needs. People like Einstein and Edison represent creativity with a big “C” while individuals who make a meal a bit differently, design a backyard garden, or write a poem have achieved small “c” creativity that enhances life and produces satisfaction.
“Even in the best of circumstances, creativity is an evolving process; it ebbs and flows, and moves us in different ways at different times,” Dr. Cohen says. His studies and contacts with elders convinced him “that it is never too late, even in the face of obstacles, to enjoy a fuller experience of our human potential.”
He also describes the qualities that can enhance our creativity include self-motivation; stick-to-it-iveness; resourcefulness; independence; curiosity; attraction to the unknown; a sense of challenge; tolerance of ambiguity; ability to “step outside the lines”; desire to seek something different; courage to imagine things that aren’t; and the willingness to take risks, to dream, and to draw inspiration from within oneself.
The book’s publisher is Avon Books, Inc.
Comments