I don't feel like talking about poetry today. I'm still wiping away the tears from last night's Lost finale and thinking about all of the laundry I'm not going to do.
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, creativity is one of the items at the top of the pyramid, also known as "self-actualization." This means that you can't be creative until you have some other things in place. The other categories of needs that require fulfillment before we can reach the pinnacle include (in ascending order): physiological, safety, love/belonging, and esteem. Food, shelter, family, friendship, intimacy, confidence...they're all on lower rungs than making art.
Abraham Maslow was a Brooklyn-born psychologist who found success sometime in the 1940s with the publication of his hierarchy. I find the tiers to be interesting and somewhat true, but unfortunately Maslow was rather harsh on people he referred to as "cripples," finding them incapable of fulfilling these needs. All this from a guy who only studied people he considered to be extremely healthy. How would he explain the success of so many mentally ill artists?
And where do laundry and TV-watching fit in?
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Unfortunately for Maslow, many artists have proved him wrong. Starting with Saint John of the Cross, a master of mystical poetry, who wrote from a tiny cell where he could barely stand up and was being tortured almost every day.
ReplyDeleteBut let-s face it: it-s more difficult to write when you are hungry. Try it!
:-)
xoxo,
F