I have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. What this means is that I have difficulty in concentrating on things I am not interested in. Sometimes this makes me wonder---Do I really have a deficit because I'm not good at organizing paperwork or returning to tasks that are intellectually unstimulating for me? Or is it just that I am somehow in a space where the organizer has more value than the creative-person, unless that creative person is a Spielberg or an Einstein or a J.K. Rowlings.
I go back and forth on this. I have a feeling that none of these original thinkers do or did their own taxes, organized their filing cabinets or kept up with their bills all-by-themselves. I think they hired people who were good at those tasks to do them. Even people who are good with math or law or science can be creative-thinkers (possibly diagnosed with A.D.D.). But, they are good in a way that interests them. Not necessarily the research--but more the original concepts.
Dr Iain McGilchrist has a little animated feature on u-tube called "The Divided Brain." In it he looks at how the different parts of the brain communicate--and how rational thinking (which is basically being good at whatever already exists) gets more appreciation than the creative thinking (which is inventing new and better things that the creative brain brings into existence).
Well, of course we have to pay our taxes and our bills and put our clothes away and locate our phone numbers. But, instead of understanding that different people have a different skill-set, generally, in the world I inhabit, anyway; we believe that rational-thinkers have cornered the market on what-is-needed--and creative-thinkers are dreamers-who-don't-really-accomplish much.
I think of a story I heard about an alien that came to a planet where all its inhabitants had four-fingers.
The alien had five fingers and, so, was a freak of nature---well, on this planet. So the planets' inhabitants thought about how to remedy the problem. And what they came up with was to remove one of his fingers---so he could be just like them! Instead of looking at the possible advantages of having a hand that could pick up more, these rational thinkers found a way to have their hands be the only kind of hands there were.
I wonder about the value of creative-thinkers in a rational-thinkers world. Perhaps we should all be
considering the value of individual differences; understanding that creative-thinkers are necessary to invent and inspire and make new things happen. Rational-thinkers are important too; to see that the inventions and inspirations and new things that creative-thinkers create, continue to function efficiently and to keep replicating the inventions and teaching the concepts to others, so that the rest of us can pay our taxes and our bills, keep our filing cabinets organized and get the services that would not be there in the first place without the creative-thinkers.
I know my Attention Deficit seems like a deficit when I am trying to do a task like deal with insurance companies to see that they do what I am paying for them to do--or straighten out a banking or a billing error. But this kind of thinking sure comes in handy when I am feeling inspired in a therapy session to see what is blocking my client from achieving his goals or when I am writing to you in this blog or when I am combining a lot of what I know from all the places my mind is attracted to to come up with an-alternative-to-what-is.
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