A Box is a Box
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” — George Herbert
The above photo made me laugh out loud when I saw it on Facebook recently. Maybe you have to love cats the way I do to see the humor in it. Let’s just say that in the long parade of cats that have graced my life, there hasn’t been a single one that could resist climbing into an empty box. Even boxes that were too small for them.
Before you give up on me and say, “There she goes, yammering about cats again,” let me assure you this post is not actually about cats. Pondering feline behavior simply has opened the door to something larger for me. (And if there is anything a cat loves as much as an empty box, it is an opening door.)
Years ago — more than 40, if I am honest — my roommate and I adopted two kittens, Max and Jesse. We may as well have adopted Laurel and Hardy. Max was an absolute to-the-bone clown. Jesse, who had an innate understanding of proper decorum and comportment, played the role of straight man in the comedy team.
One day, when the kittens were still very small, I was in our apartment kitchen embarking on a culinary adventure. The kittens had followed me in there, because they basically followed my roommate and me everywhere. I set a mixing bowl on the table. You know those Pyrex bowls your mother and grandmother had? The big one was yellow, the second largest one was green, and there were two smaller bowls — a red and a blue? My mother had given me her set of bowls, and I was using the green bowl — the second-largest one — that day. For all of 30 seconds, I turned around to pull an ingredient out of the cupboard. When I turned back, Max (the goofball kitten) was curled up inside the green bowl. He was sound asleep. In the 30 seconds while I had my back turned!
That’s cats for you. Every cat I have ever known has behaved like that, right down to my current feline friend, Little Stevie. The other day, one of our neighbors brought over a basket for my husband to repair. I set it on the kitchen counter — just for a moment, while I took care of something else — and this is what immediately happened:
And then, after berry picking last Friday, I set some of my empty boxes by the garage door so that I would remember to put them in my car next time I headed outside. And this is what happened:
A cat cannot resist a box, no matter how small. Any box — and even, apparently, a bowl — will do, as long as it is empty. Or mostly empty. Or tempting in some other cat-endorsed way that I haven’t figured out. A cat will make do with whatever box he has to hand (or paw). A cat will get creative and find a way.
Which leads me to human beings. From what I have observed, human beings will also get creative and find a way. (See? I promised you I would pivot at some point.)
When my son was young, I coached his Odyssey of the Mind team. Whereas a cat might describe his relationship to a box as an “in the box experience,” Odyssey of the Mind characterizes its program as a “beyond the box experience.” As they explain on their website, “Odyssey of the Mind teaches students how to develop and use their natural creativity to become problem solvers.” Odyssey of the Mind - Search
An international competition, Odyssey of the Mind presents teams with both long-term problems to solve within limited budgets and strict parameters over a period of several months and short-term “Spontaneous” problems to be solved on the spot within just a few short minutes on the day of the competition. Teams are judged by teamwork, creativity, and technical problem solving.
Just to give you some idea of the kinds of problems teams solve, below are the synopses of the long-term problems for the upcoming school year. (For most of the years I coached, my team worked on the structure problem, an example of which is #4 below.)
Odyssey of the Mind coaches are trained to provide safe meeting spaces, encouragement, observations and feedback, questions, chances to practice different examples of Spontaneous problems, access to materials, and transportation as needed. But the one thing a coach cannot, must not, ever, ever, ever provide is the answer to any part of any problem. For example, a coach might ask the team how they can quickly and reliably assemble various pieces of their project once they are at the competition site. But a coach may not ever say, “You know, you could just use duct tape to strap everything together.” (Coaching Odyssey of the Mind is an enormous lesson in biting one’s tongue. Oh, the countless times I wished I could just say, “Um? Duct tape?”!)
Here’s what I observed during my coaching: Human beings can be enormously creative and resourceful. When necessity and inspiration (or both) strike, humans will find a way. Just as the cat in the photo found a way to climb into a box that was way too small, human beings can be clever, too. And you know what? It’s pretty amazing to watch.
A few years ago, our banjo teacher let us borrow a book called True Faith, True Light, by Kelly Mulhollan (University of Arkansaw Press, Fayetteville, AR.). At the time, my husband was still building musical instruments, and the book chronicles Ed Stilley, a rather unique instrument maker from Arkansas. A farmer and Freewill Baptist preacher, Stilley had a vision one day that he should make musical instruments for children. Stilley, who knew nothing about instrument making, embraced the challenge. Over a period of years, he built over 200 instruments and gave them away to children. He taught himself how to bend the wood. He used scraps of wood and other materials he had to hand (unusual materials like saw blades, marbles, and springs) to brace or adorn his creations. He even collected other people’s castoff junk to incorporate into his designs. That’s how he built guitars, fiddles, banjos, and dulcimers with unique, unusual designs, no two alike. A religious man, he inscribed his instruments with the words, “True faith, true light, have faith in God.”
I’m guessing most of those instruments lacked the quality of sound of a Stradivarius. But it is worth remembering that even Antonio Stradivari had to begin somewhere, using his imagination and creativity and honing his technical skills. Sound quality aside, Stilley’s instruments provide a wonderful example of folk-art originating from the Ozarks, one of the poorest regions of our country.
You can read a marvelous article about Stilley in Slate Magazine: Tim Hawley photographs Ed Stilley’s homemade guitars in the book, Gifted: The Instruments of Ed Stilley. I recommend it so that you can learn more about him, and also because the photographs give some idea of the very modest means Stilley had available for his work. His farm buildings — which I understand he constructed himself — can only be described as hardscrabble. Stilley may not have been a man of much in the way of material possessions or wealth (the way wealth is conventionally measured, that is to say), but he had an imagination, creativity, purpose, and determination. For me, he is a perfect example of how human beings can be creative and find a way.
Sometimes life hands us a box that is way too small even though we love, love, love to get into empty boxes. If all we can do is stick our two front paws inside, then, by gum, that’s what we will do. Sometimes we have a vision we want to bring to birth, but our means and materials are limited. So, we figure out how to use what we have to hand. We harness our creative powers to look at things in new ways.
The serious problems the world is facing right now seem insurmountable sometimes. When I feel overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of the problems, it’s helpful for me to remember human beings actually possess vast resources and ingenuity to bring to bear in times of difficulty, challenge, tragedy, and trauma. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have,” the wise Maya Angelou said. Just like the cat with his two front paws in the box, we humans can get creative and find a way. That’s my task right now. That’s my calling. I would argue that’s the world’s calling now, too.
Love,
Sylvia
Loved reading this. I'm familiar with Odyssey of the Mind from my teaching days. Along with two other teachers I coached Academic Games. It was fascinating to see the creativity of some students...shy introverts who had few friends. We were lucky to make it to national competition and what I will always remember was how our school rallied around this team, everyone from the basketball team to the custodian. Our bus arrived back at school after our national match to see the driveway lined with the entire school staff giving us a standing ovation.
I am always delighted by subjects you choose to research and the connections you make. You have a curious and creative mind! This post was delightful, as were the photos of Little Stevie. Whereas we are often encouraged to think outside the box, Little Stevie gets creative thinking inside the box!