The Sunday Magazine Section

The paint is peeling but it's still a beautiful rock... by Bob Fisher

How do you spend your Sunday morning? Norman leaves at dawn for the tennis club and he hopes to get in a game or two while he is there. I like to watch CBS This Morning and not move around so much. On a really lazy Sunday morning, I might even peruse the paper. Today, the stories on the morning show were all about creativity in geniuses and savants. I think I fit into the more off-balanced savant category than the geniuses of the world, but I enjoy watching people express their creativity across all spectrums. I also secretly enjoy the scientific explanations behind it all.

Growing up, I watched my father be creative at his drafting table. When I was not much taller than the slant of his table, I would peer over the side and be fascinated with the strokes of his pencil and brush. He would explore something new every few years and turn that into a creative outlet for the period of time it amused him to do so. His evolving search for what made him feel like an artist also describes me to a tee. I am more like my father than anyone else. We used to walk along the water and collect rocks to paint. His beautiful small abstract paintings were influenced by the shapes of the rocks, and eventually became the inspiration for huge acrylic paintings on canvas. The canvases he stretched and painted were very 1960's in style with their Op-art appearance. He used a ruling pen filled with paint to create exquisite lines and illusions, as perfect as any computer could do... something he wouldn't know about or embrace with his own art until years later. At work, his playful illustrations and commercial designs were intended to sell products. At home, his art meant something a whole lot more.

After one of his surgeries, Daddy was under the influence of painkillers and in his dream-like state, he explained how the sharp angles cutting through the circles in his designs, were based on the science of splitting atoms. Wow, who knew that his artwork reflected the advances in science? Not his daughter, that's for sure. I thought his paintings were simply a joyous experiment in color, shape, and design, and they made me want to be an artist.

I travel through my own life juggling between the fun hobbies of painting, writing, and sewing. Underneath it all, I have always been fascinated with science. Not until this morning when I was reading the magazine section of the Sunday Times did it dawn on me, that even in this, we are very much alike. The article I stopped to read was about a branch of human evolution, not many people know about. For most readers, that article would not be where they pause in their Sunday page turning activity. I glaze over politics and geography, sports and fashion. I glaze over a lot that is covered by magazines, making a subscription to a weekly periodical ridiculous for me and certainly a waste of good paper. But an article about anthropology, not the cute store but the science of past human life, gets my attention.

Along with my many romance novels in my Nook library is the book, "Last Ape Standing," by Chip Walter. I loved this book. The author explored human evolution and attributed the development of our resourceful brains to our uniquely long childhoods. By not reaching adulthood as fast as other species, we have more of a chance of retaining the mental qualities of childhood, being curious and being creative. Creativity, it turns out, was the key to our survival. And curiosity was the spark that ignited every genius thought and invention. The stories today on the CBS morning show alluded to that same thing.

How cool is that? We were all born to be creative. My father not only passed down the human genes for curiosity and creativity to his kids, he made it a part of our childhood experiences. Everything I do from sewing a quilt to someday painting a rock of my own is my birthright. It's everyone's birthright. So, go ahead and be lazy if you like, but always be curious. Ask questions. What will you do today?