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by Arnold De Villa
November 16, 2011
So were the last words of Steve Jobs according to Mona Simpson, his biological sister. They were words delivered in a eulogy and printed in “The New York Times”. Job’s overwhelming sense of delight and amazement, a reflection of a person immersed in innovative introspection and creative contemplation, is perhaps the most important ingredient in the concoction of the most dominant multi-media device in the world. The I-Pod, which became an I-Phone and then an I-Pad, has crept into the homes of millions as a piece of personalized micro-appliance. And the visionary who blazed the fire left with “oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!”
When I was in grade school I came across a book that narrated the history and importance of creativity. It mentioned about how a refrigerator manufacturer increased sales and production by adding shelves into its refrigerator doors. Then another devised ways of adding colors and shapes to the bottles of otherwise lackluster perfumes to attract buyers and consumers. The point behind those stories was to convey the fact that a creative perspective is normally an attitude that perceives the same thing from another perspective. Basically, creativity is when we see what is not yet there so that when we perceive them, we will be able to view that that which already exists can even be better. Modern lingo refers to this as “thinking out of the box”. Personally, I would label it as “thinking without a box”.
I think it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that our mind grows as far as we allow it to stretch, or something to that point. To that I add that before it is stretched, there needs to be a force that will do the pulling and the tweaking. This force could be attributed to an external stimulant, yet if that stimulant is not present, then perhaps that stimulant can be created. So it all boils down once more to what we already have – attitude. The way we react, respond and act finds its final frontier through the determination of our will. Despite excuses, alibis and other culprits, we are the sole creators of our actions.
The creative mind understands this while the rest of the world can only envy. So the creative mind commences with a disposition of wonderment, an aura of zeal, and a readiness for passion. In simple terms, the creative person has the ability to enjoy what we can see on the basis of what we see. Unfortunately, some of us do not fully enjoy what we currently see, not because there are no reasons to do so, but because we fail to realize the reasons in doing so. The rites of life and the routines of daily living have somewhat dulled the acuity of our internal senses. We joined the wave, we move with the waves, and the waves will move us. When the threat of a ship wreck arrives with a stormy wind, anchors disappear and we sink down to the bottom. The creative person will sail with the wave, forget the safety of a long abandoned ship and swim through the storm. The creative person will see himself soaring through the sea and not sinking down the bottom. The creative person will not haggle on how to float, but will try to find the secrets of walking through the surface of water, if at all possible and real.
Look at a kid respond to a toy he or she has never seen in life. See those eyes open wide. Listen to the laughter of joy. Observe the enthused hands breaking through the different coatings of wrapping paper and tape. Now look at yourself when you were a kid. Is there anything in life that you once stood in awe with a gaping mouth and dilated pupils? Did it give you that sense of wonderment? Did it poke on your curiosity to know more?
The beauty of Apple corporation products and everything that has been born as an addendum to them lies in the eyes of its beholder. That sense of wonderment woven into its gizmos has transposed the same wonderment to all its users and consumers, beautifying simplicity while simplifying complexity.
In this era of information glut, Jobs has succeeded to filter out the excess and exceeded on the expectations of the basic. Indeed the advancements in history have occurred because the basics and the essentials of those advancements were not tossed in vain. Rather, the creative mind held unto them and reshaped their existence according to the possibilities of future vision. That makes a creative person a visionary.
As consumers, it then becomes imperative that we continue with Job’s legacy not only to enjoy such devices but also to find ways on how to creatively use and apply them in our rather mundane and secular world. The pleasures of musical sound bites and visual information are enhanced towards the fulfillment of anything that can elevate humanity into a better race. This is where I stand in awe. This is where I am amazed.
Just like Jobs, I also say “wow” because I try to shape the size and color of anything that I see in my mind, hoping that there is something better that I could use it for. That disposition to see something better even when there really is nothing else to see is at times considered as quixotic or even vain by those who have not jumped into the risks of creative thinking. Safety indeed demands acceptance of a specific convention, quietly succumbing to that which is the same. Creativity gets out of that convention, escapes out of that restriction, because the need to grow requires the breaking of bones and the cracking of our skin.
Oh wow! But this goes back to an old biblical verse from the book of St. John, “Before a seed could grow into a tree, it should first be dead and buried into the ground”. Likewise, without the need for a sermon, we can deduce that creativity demands a certain sense of rebellion, a certain disposition not to agree with everything that comes our way. It demands that we not only appreciate what we see, but also see thoroughly why we appreciate. Knowing what to know and knowing why we know will eventually lead us to knowing how we know and knowing what else we would want to know.
Oh wow! The gears of the mind seem to have a life of its own. It is amazing to realize how human beings are made of. I can’t help but thank God for sharing with us a foretaste of what He does. Only God can create because He alone can produce the existence of something from nothing.. Oh wow!