The Genesis Paradigm

“Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.” Maya Angelou Introduction I would venture to say that no act stirs the emotions and offers the rewards that our own creativity engenders. The Genesis Paradigm describes the process of creativity that is at the heart of what makes us human. From the dawn of civilization, man has been making use of this most unique human quality. I believe that everyone possesses this magnificent talent but for many, it lies dormant. It is for this purpose that I set about writing this book: to help us all unleash this creative force that has the power to transform the world and to help us fulfill our potential. How well we exercise our role as husband, wife, sister, brother, mother, father, friend, employer or employee, will depend, to a large degree, on our ability to be creative. For these roles can be either dynamic, health promoting and enhancing or they are simply a repetition of what has come before, and largely unfulfilling. Many go through life wishing for more but never really knowing how to achieve it. The world is becoming a fast pace changing place. In order to keep up with it, we need to become capable of change and living with uncertainty and being in tune with our higher selves. These are qualities inherent in the creative process. In fact, many believe that it is God Himself, who beseeches man to emulate Him and to master the world and to be creative. Now I realize that many people have a strong reaction to the word god, however many of my ideas were formulated while living a religious way of life. For our purposes throughout the book, please substitute whatever word or idea works for you. It only matters that we can have a meaningful understanding of a higher purpose. Creativity is defined by the dictionary as using imagination to bring something into existence. This implies a strong correlation between imagination and creativity. It also implies a future orientation. What one is creating is not yet a part of this world. When the artist begins a painting or sculpture, or a musician begins to write a piece of music, his focus is on something that is not yet tangible, except as a medium of his imagination, or fantasy. Some have spoken about this process as quite painful, others as ecstasy, and yet others as incredibly frustrating. Yet all are describing the same process of creativity. One might correctly ask, well what is imagination and how are we taught to use and access our imaginations? For most of us, imagination was something that we had at best, in our childhoods, and for many, not even that. Certainly by adulthood most of us had learned to put our imaginations aside. Rarely do we challenge the existing status quo and try to identify new and more rewarding ways. Our school years were mostly filled with learning information that could then be adequately repeated for exams. Thus the ability to delve into our imaginations and to see in them the endless possibilities that exist there is surely lost to most of us. What a shame. What a loss of potential. And yet, it is my contention that the power is always there, latent, just beneath the surface, waiting to be released. Maybe it is the deep seated belief in something better. There is a preoccupation with movies in our culture. Our own imaginations are not seen as reliable, and so we seek out Hollywood’s version. We long to connect to something out there. We somehow have within us the unique desire to understand the world, to improve the world in some way, unlike the animal kingdom that acts on its own impulses only, we as human beings have an innate desire to create, to change things, to move to a higher level of being. When we move in that direction, we experience a unique sense of fulfillment. However as Isaac Newton pointed out, that for every action there is an opposite reaction. Therefore, there is a state of dualism that gets created. When one is attempting to create, there is an equal and powerful impulse to remain with the status quo, thus setting up a state of dynamic tension. This is in part because the first stage of the process is chaos. As things begin to change, the order that we so much crave, is no longer dominant. We need to learn to tolerate this, to be able to manage it, knowing that it is purposeful. What is interesting here is that as this tension is slowly resolved by moving forward, the result is an exquisite reward. There is a sense of accomplishment, of achieving one’s goal. We feel as if we have moved to a higher level, and we have. We have developed a part of ourselves that was dormant. It was a part of us that was seeking transformation, or revelation. The title of this book, The Genesis Paradigm: strategies for creative living, was chosen for two reasons. First, Genesis implies a new beginning, a fresh start; it is filled with mystery, potential, and hopefulness. It begins with chaos however little by little order is achieved. The end point was there at the beginning but needed to be developed in stages, as each phase set the stage for the next. It provides a powerful paradigm for change and growth. Second, because in the Bible, in the first part called the book of Genesis, we learn a great lesson about the nature of man. This was best explained by a great thinker of the last generation, Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchik. He wrote a treatise on the dual nature of mankind in Genesis in his book The Lonely Man of Faith . In the first chapter of the story of creation it says, “and God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them. And God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the foul of the heaven, and over the beasts, and over all the earth.” However further on we read another description, “and the eternal God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. And He caused a mist to envelop the earth and caused man to fall into a deep sleep and He took from his flesh and bones and created woman.” These are two very different descriptions about the creation of man that are referred to by Rabbi Soloveitchik as Adam I and Adam II. Adam I is this world oriented, he asks the how questions in order to achieve and to dominate the world around him, while Adam II is other worldly and asks the why questions to better understand his place in the cosmos and his purpose in being here. Adam I is industrious, rational and sets out to conquer the world, while Adam II seeks transformation, to transcend this world and connect with the divine by following intuition or their “higher self” rather than their rational mind. In fact the conclusion Soleveitchik draws is that we are all a combination of both Adam I and Adam II traits. However in many ways these two natures are in duality. That is correct, and the exciting facet of human nature is that when we bring these two natures together, there is a dynamic that is created that allows us to fulfill our potential. This is not a religious book; it is a book for anyone. The ideas are mine that have been brought together in my own unique way. We will explore these ideas in the following chapters. Now more than ever in history, we need some guiding principles to help us adapt to the ever changing world around us. I have included many stories of the people I have worked with in my years as a therapist. I have seen how helpful these ideas are first hand and I welcome the opportunity to share them with you. I believe you will find them uplifting and that they make sense.