Creativity

Have you ever done one of those self-assessments where they ask you what you want people to say about you at your funeral? I think they're looking for things like "She was really committed to her family" or "She always brought great pies to the potluck." The idea being that once you have the answers to that question, you'll realize your life goals and start doing things, like baking pies, that can help you reach those goals.

I've always answered that I want people to say "She was really creative." But I'm realizing that creativity, in and of itself, is not really a good life goal. First of all, it's a bit vague. I mean, you can't just be creative in a vacuum, you have to be creative at doing something. My husband, for example, is a really creative problem solver. My mom does creative drawings and collages.

I can knit - but that's not really creative. It's kind of like baking cookies from refrigerated dough - someone already did the hard creative stuff by coming up with the recipe and stuffing it in that plastic wrap, all you have to do is cut up the dough and bake it (preferably without the plastic wrap).

I can sing (basically) in tune but again, not really creative. It's not like I write my own songs or even do any interesting interpretations of someone else's music. I just follow the notes, like following the pattern or the recipe. The creative work is already done.

So I'm thinking that maybe, when they write my eulogy, they'll say that my writing was creative. That is, if I can ever stop writing about writing and actually write something that could be called creative. Maybe I'll write my eulogy . . .