Culture of Creation and Hope
I did the sketch above while living in India. I am fascinated with mehndi and my friend, a mehndi artist, mentored me in the artform. The sketch above was one of his many assignments for me…so that my hands understood the craft and techniques. Thanks again Mishal.
One of my favorite shows on television is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart is a game changer, very funny and most importantly very intelligent. On Monday night’s show he had Anand Giridharadas, an online columnist for The Times and the author of recently released “India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking.”
In his interview with Jon, Anand spoke of India and its “cultural upheaval, as a new generation has sought to reconcile old traditions and customs with new ambitions and dreams.” Jon asked him about the success and growth of India (China included), and he attributed their success largely because to their “culture of hope and creation,” and that stuck with me. He was absolutely right!
I have lived in the Caribbean, the US and India; India has by far been my most creative and innovative experience. This was so because of what Anand spoke of, that culture of creation…all of us wanting to create, do, and be better. We didn’t care whose idea it was, all we cared about was perfecting it. I was among people – now my family – who shared knowledge and information freely. I have mentioned these people before (Share, Create, Ideate blog post). I will always be an advocate for sharing knowledge because I have seen the awful effects of living by the old method of hoarding knowledge – mistrust, little or no innovation, little or no collaboration, and so much more. I am an architect but learned from and shared with my friends who are product and industrial designers, business, and marketing gurus. They opened their worlds to me and as a result I entered the realm of product design and business, and marketing. I enter and even won a product design competition (Ecotopia) with my friend Gijsbert. I shared knowledge and vice versa. We are all better today at what we do by the mere fact that we all truly love what we do and are able to see the BIG picture…that without sharing with each other, and learning from each other, our innovations would be much less than they could be.
What kind of culture are you fostering? What kind of culture are you part of? Hoarding information and knowledge today is a waste of energy and time. Your time would be better spent sharing and collaborating…THAT sparks creative energy and invention. Start that culture of hope and creation today in your home, class, country, region, and society. The future depends on it. If you see the BIG picture and practice knowledge sharing, don’t hesitate to drop me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
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This work by Vernelle Noel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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