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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Creative Book About Creativity, Quality, and Excellence, April 30, 2002
This book is about creative work. The highest compliment
that I can give to The Life of the Creative Spirit is that when I
finished reading it, I turned back to page one and read it again. This book describes projects and creative work, from the
construction of a path through your garden, to making a better
garden trowel, to Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel. It defines quality and excellence. The theme of
the book is that creative work, be it the work of an artist, a
scientist, a mathematician, a mechanic, an entrepreneur, a rock
climber (taking a creative route to the top), a collector (think
of collecting and displaying a collection of fine paintings), or
work in almost any vocation or avocation can put goodness into
the world, and makes for a life in which "... most every day is
the time of one's life." This book describes the importance of quality and excellence
to everyday life. What person has never been moved by a great
painting or by music or by reading a book or by simply using a
well designed tool? "Consider a certain garden trowel," the
author says. "Relative to alternative designs, its creators
intended it to serve suitably well across a range of features--
retaining its sharpness, resisting bending at the handle,
inhibiting rust, neither fatiguing nor raising blisters, while
costing less than other trowels." When we encounter quality, the
author tells us, "our spirits leap." How true. This book takes the reader "behind the ranges" to some
interesting places. The book makes a convincing argument that
kindness toward animals and the preservation of nature are
essential to creativity. "More than ever before, causing pain or
terror to people and animals, or enslaving them, or taking their
lives impedes the creation and consumption of artistic excellence
in society." The author concludes the book with a reasoned argument that
knowing and preserving nature are essential to creativity.
Nature, the author says, "is necessary for our spiritual well-
being." "... Had our ancestors roamed an alabaster-smooth planet,
Pythagoras wouldn't have been Pythagoras, nor Einstein been
Einstein, nor Maxfield Parrish, James Russell Lowell, Joseph
Haydn, E.E. Barnard, Wassily Kandinsky, Rachel Carson, and M.C.
Escher been as creative as they were." The last section of the book has 187 pages of Credos of
Creative Writers, quoting the thoughts and ideas of notable
creators like Ansel Adams, Louis Armstrong, Rachel Carson,
Abraham Maslow, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and many, many
others. This section alone is worth the purchase price of the
book. I have been thinking about this book each day since I first
read it three months ago. Its discussion about quality and
excellence, goodness, beauty, and wilderness preservation has
made my work as a computer programmer all the more enjoyable.
After reading this book, I plan to fight even harder for the
protection of the natural world and for the preservation of all
species. The author is right. I would be a lesser computer
programmer without having a National Forest nearby in which to
hike and enjoy the natural world. This book is also helping me plan for the decades ahead in
my life. Like Ansel Adams saving thousands of photographic
negatives from his days in the field, for subsequent development
in his old age, I too plan to have creative work for the years
ahead. I also purchased several copies of this book for friends. I
gave a copy of it to a college student who is a writer. It will
show her that she is making hidden progress on her writing even
when she discards her work and starts over. I gave a copy to a
psychology professor at a liberal arts college, because it is an
excellent book for a seminar on creativity. I gave a copy to my
stock broker because she knows that companies that abuse the
natural world are not worth investing in. Finally, I keep my copy of this book nearby because I never
tire of reading and rereading the quotations in the last part of
the book.
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