The Thread Of Interest

Cecil Vortex interviews Ze Frank (via 43 Folders): "You know, I really think that people have to come into this in their own way. For me, this notion of "creativity" is sort of a blank word. It doesn't really mean much. And the more you look into it and look at how different people explore it, you realize that it's a word that has many, many different definitions."

I completely agree, despite having that word in the name of this site and the workshop . That's why it's important to define the aspect of creativity you're on about.

He continues:

"The thing that I focus in on is being interested and realizing that anything that you approach has almost a fractal pattern. Anything. If it's yarn for knitting, you realize that if you have any interest , there's more information there than would last you a year, to get into and understand and play around with, not to mention all the tactile qualities of yarn and what it feels like when you stretch it across something or ball it up. So that's how I look at this -- having the energy to stay interested and the energy to spark interest in things."

I see interest as the organizing principle in my life, the magnetic force that has brought me to writing these words at this moment. Think of it as following a thread. You notice a particular thread, maybe it's a haiku or a landscape or a cartoon. Whatever it is, you immediately feel the tug of interest, the pull to find out more. So you follow the thread to see where it leads. Sometimes the interest wanes right away, but other times it carries you – and even those around you – on a journey that may have a trajectory of months, years or even decades.

Let me give you a concrete example. Some time around February 2003, I was reading my Brezhny horoscope (I've had a lifelong aversion to astrology but have to make an exception in his irreverent, poetic case). The invasion of Iraq was brewing at this point and on Brezhny's home page was a link to a commentary by Ken Wilber .

I had never heard of Wilber but recognized a thread and clicked. I was fascinated by the article and spent half that day reading everything I could find by and about Wilber. Over the next couple years, I ended up reading several books, volunteering for a week at the Integral Institute in Boulder, and discovering and training with Genpo Roshi in Big Mind. My wife and daughter took separate, week-long Integral Institute seminars with Fred Kofmann in Denver. During her workshop, my daughter met the partner with whom she now lives in Mexico City.

I'm not trying to claim credit for this sequence of events, only pointing out that it was set in motion by following the thread of interest. When I look at my life, I see this pattern repeated over and over. It takes time, but in the end it is only interest that can lead you to where you belong.