The Life of the Creative Spirit
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About the Book
Drawing upon the ideas of more than three hundred notable creators, including painters, scientists, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, writers, poets, naturalists, actors, and rock climbers, The Life of the Creative Spirit explains how to work at most any vocation or avocation as an artist would.
For employers, it gives insights for keeping creative workers happy. For educators and parents, it gives ideas for schooling the young and turning them on to a life of creative work. For the young, it offers better understanding of themselves and their career possibilities. For older creators, it gives strategies for keeping their creative faculties and interest going strong.
And for readers in general, it gives an increased appreciation of creativity and its role in society, of the oneness of the aesthetic and the moral, and of how creative work puts spirituality into creators’ lives, leading them to what the writer Jack London called ultimate happiness.
The book presents new and valuable reasons for humanely treating animals and for preserving nature. It explains that compassion to animals is an integral part of a creative society, and that the more animals are revered and treated kindly, the more creative society will be.
It explains that nature is likewise an integral part of a creative society, and that the current destruction of wilderness and species suppresses creativity in society, thereby suppressing the production of great goodness we give to each other through our art and work.
Quotations of notable creators comprise half of the book. The author has collected them in the course of scholarly research of studying published diaries, journals, letters, and other autobiographical material, with the intent of making the collection form a gestalt on the topic of creativity.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction To Important Matters
PART ONE: The Nature Of Creative Work
Chapter Two: What A Project Is
Chapter Three: How Projects Are Recursive
Chapter Four: How Projects Use Modeling
Chapter Five: How Creators Collaborate
Chapter Six: What Goodness And Quality Are
Chapter Seven: Where Quality Comes From
Chapter Eight: How Inner And Outer Excellence Run Each Other
Chapter Nine: How The Creative Spirit And Quality Humanize Us
Chapter Ten: What Motivates Creators
Chapter Eleven: How To Be A Universal Artist
PART TWO: Examples Of Creators At Work
Chapter Twelve: The Work Of The Artist
Chapter Thirteen: The Work Of The Scientist
Chapter Fourteen: The Work Of The Mathematician
Chapter Fifteen: The Work Of The Mechanic
Chapter Sixteen: The Work Of The Entrepreneur
Chapter Seventeen: The Work Of The Rock Climber
Chapter Eighteen: The Work Of The Collector
PART THREE: The Responsibilities Of Creators
Chapter Nineteen: Guarding Against A Life Given To Sensual Pleasures
Chapter Twenty: Raising Children
Chapter Twenty-one: Raising Oneself
Chapter Twenty-two: Revering Every Form Of Life
Chapter Twenty-three: Knowing And Preserving Nature
PART FOUR: Credos Of Creative Workers
September 2002 review in National Review Network (New Age Retailer magazine). Reviewer: Thomas Peter von Bahr, Pacific NorthWest Group, Lopez Island, Wash.
This plain-covered, inconspicuous book is more than 350 pages long. The first 165 pages are Dr. H. Charles Romesburg’s own, and the rest of the book is a collection of wonderful excerpts from the writings of many artists and “creators,” ranging from Georgia O’Keeffe to Bertrand Russell to Rainer Maria Rilke to Maria Callas. So readers are treated not only to the rich fabric of thought of humanist and professor of forestry Romesburg as he examines what cultivates a creative life but also to inspiring musings about creativity by noted artists, writers, and thinkers.
About the Author
Charles Romesburg has interests in business and ecology. He holds a Ph. D. in management science, and has worked in industry. Currently he is a professor of forestry, and has received his college’s award for excellence in teaching, and The Wildlife Society’s publication award for excellence in research. With this book he expands the geographic reach of a college seminar he teaches on creative work. Among the topics covered are these: What the creative spirit is, and what its purpose is. How a life of creative work leads to what the writer Jack London called ultimate happiness. How workers in most every vocation and avocation can work as artists do, creating use, beauty, or both, of rare note. How regularly experiencing wild nature makes us better creators. How it is that the more all forms of life come to be revered, the more creative society will be.