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    The Wisdom Collection
    The Wisdom Collection
    The Wisdom Collection
    Ebook78 pages4 hours

    The Wisdom Collection

    By Ed Gibney

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    About this ebook

    In 2004, positive psychologists Peterson and Seligman published a list of 24 character strengths drawn from ancient and modern texts of wisdom from around the world. Contemplate one of them as part of a series of short stories by writer and philosopher Ed Gibney. To see more, got to evphil.com.

    This collection contains the short stories for the strengths of creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, and perspective. Together, they comprise the virtue of wisdom.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateJul 25, 2018
    ISBN9781387974429
    The Wisdom Collection

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      Book preview

      The Wisdom Collection - Ed Gibney

      The Wisdom Collection

      by

      Ed Gibney

      Copyright Page

      Copyright © 2018 Ed Gibney

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner of this book listed above.

      Every effort has been made to fulfill requirements with regard to reproducing copyright material. The author and publisher will be glad to rectify any omissions at the earliest opportunity.

      This story is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.

      ISBN: 978-1-387-97442-9

      First Edition: July 2018

      Published by Lulu Press

      www.lulu.com

      www.evphil.com

      www.facebook.com/EvolutionaryPhilosophy

      Creativity

      Thinking of novel and productive ways to do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it. Thinking of new ways to do things is a crucial part of who you are. You are never content with doing something the conventional way if a better way is possible.

      — Peterson & Seligman, Character Strengths and Virtues, 2004

      1. Preparation—preparatory work on a problem that focuses the mind and explores the problem's dimensions.

      Ed sat down to write his story on creativity.

      That’s not exactly the most creative way to start something like this is it? But hey, creatives zag when you expect them to zig. Wouldn’t an overly creative attempt at an opening line have been far worse?

      Super inventive made-up sentence with adjectives from deep inside the cracks of a thesaurus that barely work to modify a set of wildly incongruous nouns, all placed in an entirely new and unique fictional location.

      See? Worse. And after all, there is no such action as to create anyway. At least not since the Big Bang. The Ancient Greeks, Chinese, and Indians all knew this. They didn’t even have a word for this concept. Twenty-seven out of twenty-eight African languages still don’t.[1] In fact, our modern English idea of creativity is nothing more than putting two things together that hadn’t been joined before. Nothing comes from nothing. Matter and energy are never created nor destroyed in this universe.

      And yet, how can I create something new? You know, just in the normal way that we think about creativity. How can I do that?

      Divergent thinking is one process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. This is easily encouraged by creating lists of questions, brainstorming, free writing, trying role-playing games, or any number of other ways. Maybe if I come up with several microfiction stories first, then the right creative solution will jump out at me from that list. Since natural positive moods have been found to significantly improve performance for divergent thinking[2], let’s play some games! (I prefer not to engage in the writer’s clichéd method of chemically inducing my good moods.)

      First up, let’s try the Random Entry Idea Generating Tool, which works exactly like it sounds. I’ll choose some objects at random or a noun from a dictionary and then take off from there.

      Lighthouse. Lighthouses are always situated on some of the most picturesque spots in the world. But we really don’t need them anymore with GPS navigation systems on boats. Old man Bob sees the lighthouse he cares for as the solution to a homeless problem that his daughter Ellie is struggling to fix in their community. The press spreads their story as a new beacon of hope for a different set of lost travelers.

      Cricket. Crickets have been a nutritious delicacy in Mexico for thousands of years where they are flavored with chilies and limes, just like so many other foods in that culture. While on vacation, this gives Fiona an idea. She should try introducing sea salt and malt vinegar crickets to her local pub in Ireland! A stereotypical cast of small-town regulars in the establishment grows to love them after some quite understandable resistance.

      Galliard (a sprightly Renaissance and Baroque dance). It’s the XVIth Century in the Loire Valley of France. The Marquis de Fromage is preparing for the forthcoming Spring Galliard Fling, but his loyal servant Gerard just isn’t as light on his toes as he once was so he is making quite a terrible dance partner. The roguish servant suggests they try much easier dances that his master could basically just watch. He practically invents the can-can, twerking, and lap dancing as he makes each of his new offerings, but monsieur Fromage shoots down each idea as impractical and not nearly seductive enough.

      Okay, the juices are flowing; let’s try the next tool. I’ve got four of them in mind[3], so I’ll keep trying to find three ideas per tool. Next up is the Provocation Idea Generating Tool. I’ll make a statement that we know is wrong or impossible, but then see where it leads.

      Grass is purple. Colors, as we all know, don’t technically exist. They are mental representations of different wavelengths of light that reflect off other surfaces. Grass is only green in the sense that it doesn’t absorb green wavelengths. But what if it could? What if we could genetically engineer some grass to absorb almost all of the visible light, rendering them ROY G BIV violet, aka purple? A young PhD student named Chan thinks there might be a way to use this to help solve global warming, but his faculty advisor Susan wants him to consider wider ecological and ethical factors.

      Rocks are soft. A children’s fable tells the story of how the water goddess Hydrophilia tries to befriend the mean old grumpy rock man Igneoso. Igneoso has sat himself down in the middle of a stream causing it to back up and flood a valley. He has turned his back on the water and wants only to stare out to the horizon. Hydrophilia pouts and lies still for ages, but then she sees the pain that Igneoso must be in. She gets the wind god to help her flow and lap gently across Igneoso’s back. The soft touches she places on him—warm in the summer, cool in the winter—imperceptibly change him, molecule by molecule, melting away his gruff exterior until one day, after thousands of years,

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