Real creativity thrives within well-defined boundaries.

I first realized this truth when I was teaching writing to junior high students.

“Write a poem about any topic you would like,” I announced.

“No limits,” I gleefully told those fifteen or so blank-eyed barely-teenagers.

Hands were raised.  Puzzled looks increased.

The poems that were turned in the next day were . . . horrible, frankly.

They lacked form and interest and passion and anything that would hint at lovely poetry.

A few weeks later, I tried again.

But with a different angle.

We had been reading The Hobbit and had just finished a portion of the book exploring Bilbo Baggins’ fear of adventure and his surprise at finding himself smack dab in the middle of the most extraordinary adventure of his little hobbit life.

“Write a poem from Bilbo’s point of view.  Write with a first-person voice and use at least one metaphor.”

It was a basic assignment.

But it was specific and precise.

And the poems turned in the next day by the exact same students were profoundly altered.

For some of the boys in that seventh grade group, it was the best writing I had ever seen their pens produce.

And these were not really boys who were poetically creative by nature.

But given the right boundaries, given distinct guidelines, they were able to discover a clear voice within that structure.

I was reminded again of this truth when Kevin and I attended the Story conference a few weeks ago in Chicago.

Speaker and author Sean Gladding spoke about his idea that God gave Adam and Eve three gifts in the Garden of Eden.

Vocation. (To work in the garden.)

Freedom. (All is open to them.)

Boundaries. (One prohibition.)

And Sean said something that I wrote down and have thought about often since then.

(And I paraphrase, of course, because my memory is just not all that, okay?)

He said that we forget about our vocation and our freedom because we focus too intently on our boundaries.

But we need our boundaries to define our freedoms.

I love that idea.

Because I have seen the truth of it in other circumstances.

And I want to embrace

more and more

each day

that any boundary that I do have in my life

is actually

more gift

than punishment.

 

 

 

_______________________________