A house, a radio station and some creativity

Brick Dust by Vanessa Kisuule

Writer and actor John Cleese on creativity:

“It is easier to say what creativity isn’t. A bit like the sculpture who, when asked how he had sculpted a very fine elephant, explained that he’d taken a big block of marble and then knocked away all the bits that didn’t look like an elephant. Now here’s the negative thing: creativity is not a talent. It is not a talent. It is a way of operating.

[Donald] Mackinnon showed that the most creative had simply acquired a facility for getting themselves into a particular mood, a way of operating which allowed their natural creativity to function. In fact, Mackinnon described this particular facility as ‘an ability to play’. Indeed, he described the most creative when in this mood as being ‘childlike’. For they were able to play with ideas, to explore them, not for any immediate practical purpose but just for enjoyment.”

Rong Radio Station by Benjamin Zephaniah

Sometimes I wake up and don’t know where I am.
I look at the ceiling
and the walls
and the floor
and still don’t know where I am.
Or why I am.
I get up and get changed into clothes I don’t recognise
and go to work unsure how I know where I’m going.
I do a job I don’t understand
and go back to a home that I forgot
and eat food I’ve never seen
and go to bed
in the hope I wake up
and know where I am.

Enjoyed these tales? Forward this to a friend or read more at carltellstales.com

Someone shared this newsletter with you? Sign up here.

Welcome to Newsletter #83

A tale I read

A tale I heard

A tale I saw

A tale I wrote

A tail I like