Creativity somewhere along the space/time continuum?

I'm not saying memories are always completely accurate, eh. I guess they could more correctly be described as a scattering of crumbs and the readings and interpretations we place on events at the time, and in the space of time that has passed since. However I do have memories of being in school. And amongst those memories (which are often far from positive) is being told on numerous occasions 'Sutton, stop daydreaming and get on with your work'. Did that actually happen? In my head it did, and also in my stock of memories from my professional life is recollection of seeing and hearing teachers say much the same thing to students.

We seem to be taught at an early age that busyness is equated with productivity, and that if we sit idly we are wasting our time. One of the many things I am grateful for from my upbringing is that I had parents who did not peddle that message of busyness. As growing boys we were allowed to sit, to lounge, to daydream.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Thinker,_Auguste_Rodin.jpg

In my professional life I came to increasingly enjoy wandering through the visual arts spaces where I would see students sitting, in silence, staring up to the heavens, the long eyed stare. Yes they were daydreaming. Was that a bad thing? I  don't think so. Even if they were not thinking about the task in front of them, they were engaged with their internal selves, they were listening to their internal dialogue, feeling and being alone. That process needs space and time. In this age of 'always on' in which devices and social media mean that we crave connectedness within the false construct of 'social media friends', it is surely never a bad thing to sit alone, with oursleves, for a while?

So what? Having returned to work full time for a term, I've been reminded of something very fundamental about creativity: if it is to truly prosper, it needs time and space. It's not a 'space time continuum', it's not a trade off, an either/or in which you position yourself somewhere along the line. In my temporary return to this full time work status I find I have far less time to dream and invent, and to write poetry. My output is stalled (those who bother to read it might well claim that this is not a bad thing .. Douglas Adams' description of Vogon poetry might well be apt here). I'm not saying that it has stopped the creative process. But it gets in the way.

If we go with the notion that creativity is an implicit part of being human, I wonder if it is too long a draw of the bow to suggest that solitude, the need for space and time, is part of being human? Does it nurture our humanity in the same way that it nurtures creativity?

And what then do we take from the latest prognostications from on high suggesting that the arts and music can take a back seat in our schools? What interpretations are we left with?

It feels a lot like 'what could the common people possibly need creativity for, they don't need to make any sort of connection with their humanity?'. And if going hand in hand with creativity is this notion of curiosity, is this seen as a threat to political control of a population? After all, a curious population is one less likely to bend to political manipulation and control, isn't it?

Maybe I'm too readily buying into some sort of Marxist class war conspiracy. Maybe our politicians are simply uninformed, maybe they are spouting their own political dogma in their political echo chamber. Whatever the reason, our world will be the poorer for it.

Give me the dreamers any day.

Here is a link to a nice collation of some thoughts on 'aloneness and creativity'. 

Creativity needs both time and space if it is to flourish. It doesn't exist along a space/time continuum, as that suggetss it is almsot binary in nature. Rather than an either/or, it is surely an and/and? I'll try to find more time to just sit and daydream.