Creativity and Constraint

Blogging is a daunting idea. When you can write about anything, where do you start? In my case, nowhere. I have a lot of interests, maybe too many, and I tend to flit from one thing to another and then back again. The wide-open possibilities of blogging paralyzed me.

Many years ago I read an interview with an architect who had just won a major award for a small chapel. The part of the story that stuck with me was the architect's explanation for how he had come up with his design. The site was beautiful, but difficult, and the budget was small. The limitations imposed upon him allowed his imagination to take up the challenge and create something unique.

It took me no more than two minutes to find the details on the internet. The architect was E. Fay Jones and his chapel, Thorncrown, (http://www.thorncrown.com/index.html) sits in a forest setting on a hill in Eureka Springs, AK. It is as impressive as I remembered. E. Fay studied with Frank Lloyd Wright and that influence shows in the marriage of the structure and the site. The wood and stone were produced locally, and everything had to be small enough to be carried along a narrow track along the hillside. These constraints influenced both the design and and the actual methods of construction. According to E. Fay, none of this would have been possible had he been handed carte blanche and a big budget.

For me, the story of Thorncrown Chapel provided the catalyst to actually put ideas into print.  All I needed, in fact, was a constraint.  I am not sure why the letter C appealed to me, but once I limited myself, everything opened up.  So, as silly as it seems, I will write about subjects that begin with the letter C.  If there is something I want to write about, and I can't come up with a CWord to describe it, then I have failed the challenge I have set for myself.  I will see how far I get without cheating.  I do believe this is more than a gimmick--we need challenges to succeed, and cheating is an exercise in how we meet challenges versus manipulating the rules to suit ourselves.  Contemplate that at whatever level it suits you.