Unoriginal Thought

I just came home from the craft store. Something there really surprised me. Many of the items for sale seemed to be creativity inhibitors rather than the pathways to creative expression that I expected to see. This wasn't my first time in a craft store but it was the first time that I realized that I was surrounded by the shallow and empty shells of unoriginal thought.

So many items in the craft store are sold with elaborate instructions that lead us to a predetermined end result. This process is no different than combining the components of a "some assembly required" item from a regular store. The final product is the creative child of another mind.

I'm not opposed to the idea of doing something that has already been done before. I work in a bakery and we make bread the same way every single day. There is a time and a place to do what is tried and proven. I also realize that (even [maybe especially] in the creative arts) a skeletal structure of proper theory and technique is needed in order to reach true expression. Creativity is not anarchy.

I guess that my complaint (if it is one) is that this craft store was selling a large number of products that did not lead to the use of creativity nor did they teach principles that would lead to the ability to do so.

There you go.