Sunday Funday

Spencer held a seminar on creativity today, and some of us at the office were asked to help out in the event. Immediately, I signed up because not only do I get to see the boss work his creative magic outside the office, it was also a chance to get together with some colleagues in a "non-corporate" environment. By 1;30pm, the gang gathered at the Wan Chai art center. Everyone was visibly relaxed and had that "Let's just have fun" vibe along with them. Of course, so did I. Preparing for the event felt like preparing for a school play back in High School. Everyone was scurrying about doing some menial task, like mixing paints, inflating a pool mattress, wrapping a kung-fu "punching bag" in canvas, and arranging props. The seminar was conducted in Cantonese, so I couldn't understand anything they were saying, or planning to do. But I took this as a challenge to broaden my creative horizons, and try to figure out something just by looking at whatever is happening. Unlike most of the seminars I've attended, this one had no one talking! Yup, it was a silent seminar, with only cue cards telling everyone what they should do. But with the aid of music and a few scribbles on a white board, everyone got into the spirit of the event. It was totally a non-traditional seminar. There was a kung-fu man who used his moves to paint a canvas, there was an exercise where you had to take an object and put it into close contact with a person inside an acrylic container, there was a body painting session where the person's body was the paint brush, and an acting workshop. Even if I didn't understand what was being said, I could see that everyone was enjoying the seminar. And even if I couldn't read Cantonese, I got what they were doing, and what Spencer wanted to do. He was encouraging everyone to think out of the box, and use creativity to do something ordinary. In essence, he was asking everyone to find extraordinary solutions to ordinary problems. Upon further thought, I realized that was the essence of creativity. After the seminar, we started cleaning up and talking about the seminar that finished. Everyone was laughing at the highlights and sidelights, and in between mopping and biting into sandwiches, we began discovering that there is more to creativity than just finding a clever way to make an ad, or making an award winning story, or painting a masterpiece on canvas. Creativity is really opening your mind and finding new ways of doing things - whether that thing is art related, or as ordinary as folding a plastic grocery bag. Personally, i've been so obsessed with equating creativity to my job that i've forgotten to be creative in my everyday undertakings. This seminar, though i really wasn't in it, awakened my want and need to be write letters, draw pictures, make collages and just rediscover the creative spirit I had as a child. To find fun and personal fulfillment is really what creativity is meant to do. Spencer - and participating in is seminar - was successful in teaching me that. And I didn't even have to pay the seminar fee!