white_space 여백: May 2010

Photo via lifetokens
I don’t know if you had a chance to read my lengthy post back in January: From Civil War Letters to Email. If not, I was lamenting the loss of our emotional connection to the artifacts of traditional letter writing. People no longer save cherished love letters in a shoe box. Many have lost that emotional connection associated with the art and care of traditional letter writing.

Photo via lifetokens
Well...someone is trying to fill that void...Let’s say you wanted to give your child kudos for the great report card they just handed you. All A’s! But...you don’t feel like taking the time to buy a greeting card. Plus, mom and dad, that’s not hip anyway....Now comes Lifetokens...

Photo via lifetokens
Apparently, you can anonymously mail discs reminiscent of poker chips called “life tokens.” While I am not sure about the execution, I believe they are trying to fill that emotional void in our digital communications while keeping the advantages of instant messaging. Instant at least for the sender; it still has to go through the US Postal Service.

It seems kind of cool.

I think is is a start...Maybe I’ll give it a try sometime and let you know how it goes...

For many people, trying to find their creative voice can be so elusive. Some people spend their whole life looking for it. However, I suspect, we all found it when we were children...but over time...slowly...it slipped away from many of us. So slowly, in fact, that when it is almost gone it’s hard to remember we ever had it.

Photo via PhotopediaPhotos

Can you remember when you felt most creative? Think back...back when you were in kindergarten...when you pulled out your box of 64 Crayola Color Crayons and just colored...when you sang aloud in class without the worry of embarrassment...when you got out the glue, construction paper and staples...when you chased a ball around the playground for hours on end...when you weren’t afraid to fail. You were in that special place once. We all were...

Maybe that’s why we idolize rock stars, movie stars, artists or major league baseball players. They are all living like they are still in kindergarten...still playing...creating...living...loving. So, we feel relegated to live vicariously through our heroes' eyes while we try to find a path back to that place they never left. Somehow, they still have permission...permission to create..permission to play.

Well, we can’t go back to kindergarten. Some of us are lucky to get into grad school, but kindergarten is out of the question. So how can we find that permission we had in kindergarten again? Permission to play? I hear we can become rock stars if we get an XBox?

The other day we had a get together for Lyra’s work crowd. In Korea, a hwayshik (team dinner) consists of heavy eating, heavy drinking and...(once the many layers of inhibition are peeled back)...heavy singing at a karaoke bar. So, by the time everyone reaches the karaoke bar, they are back in touch with what is still left of their creative souls. It’s too bad they have to find it inside a soju bottle. It's only at that point, people feel they have permission to let it out.

However, Lyra and I wanted to avoid the heavy drinking part, but still give people permission to let their creative inner selves roam free....hmmm???

Well...to be honest...we didn’t set out to help people find themselves. We mainly wanted everyone to enjoy the night without destroying themselves or Lyra’s home in the process.

So what do we do?

Remember that box of crayons and construction paper I mentioned? Earlier that week we had grabbed a bunch white t-shirts, spray paint, fabric markers, stencils and scissors for the party. Sounds kind of girlie? Maybe...but who cares. When the group was getting sufficiently stuffed and tired...we broke out the reinforcements and sent everyone back to kindergarten!

I was worried...what if everyone thought spray painting t-shirts was stupid...and wanted to keep drinking?

Well...they didn’t. Soon everyone was at ease with themselves and totally absorbed in their t-shirt. They were in kindergarten again! No rules. All each one of them had to do was design a t-shirt using the spray paint, markers, stencils and whatever else they could get their hands on.

Our little t-shirt experiment did wonders to grease the social wheels. Once fully engaged in the creative process, everyone opened up...and by extension...were able to express a bit of who they were...without a fear of being ostracized.