The Power of Creativity by LA Bourgeois

Let’s welcome back LA Bourgeois as she shares with us “The Power of Creativity.” Enjoy!

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Did you know that your creativity makes you powerful?

It’s hard to believe sometimes, what with ongoing rejection and the seeming unending parade of gatekeepers in our lives.

But every once in a while, a story emerges that reminds me of the power inherent in our talents, and why dictators find them so dangerous.

A few months ago, I read about Robert Douin in “Madame Fourcade’s Secret War” by Lynne Olson.

The Secret War

This book tells the story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the leader of the Alliance, part of the French Resistance during World War II.

Artists and other free-thinkers made up a significant part of the Resistance, using their creativity to invent ways to sneak information from place to place, printing newspapers to share messages and hope, and a myriad of other delightful acts of defiance.

(One of my favorites was of ladies forced to knit socks for Nazis making deliberate errors that made the socks uncomfortable.)

The Stylish Spy

Douin, a French artist, headed the Caen subsector starting in 1942.

This friendly fellow wittily shared his strong opinions. 

He made a point of looking good, styling his velour suit with a cravat and wide-brimmed hat. Dark-haired and tall, he completed his artistic aesthetic with a mustache and goatee.

Before the war, he’d restored several churches along the Normandy coast. Returning to “inspect his work” gave him access to bell towers for a panoramic view of the area.

So, his main spy mission was to create a map of all of the German fortifications along the coast.

Along with sketching from sight, his son Remy would inform him of antitank trenches and access paths from the beaches.

Fishermen shared flyers from the Germans that warned them about bombardment practice which also included the locations of the artillery.

This effort resulted in a detailed, fifty-five-foot-long map of the beaches and roads where the Allies would land on June 6, 1944, D-Day.

“As one military historian wrote, Douin’s masterpiece was ‘the most complete, detailed military picture of the landing sites that the Allied command would be given in the course of the war,’” wrote Olson.

Just after Douin handed off the map in early March of 1944, he and fifteen members of his Caen subsector were captured by the Gestapo.

As the Allied troops came ashore on June 6, the Germans executed Douin and these other brave souls for their work against the Nazis.

The fact that Douin never saw the Allied victory breaks my heart.

You Are Powerful

Creatives are powerful and, when they challenge the existing power structure, dangerous.

We introduce new concepts, we broaden empathy for the unfamiliar, we enchant and challenge and educate with our words, art, and crafts.

In the hands of a creative, a simple object can become a political statement, an aesthetic movement, a ground-breaking piece that transcends use, a piece that incorporates its use so fully that its meaning can only be translated one way.

You are a writer, an author, a wordsmith. 

Your power lies in the skillful transformation of scribbles into concepts and lyricism that makes people laugh, cry, purchase, believe, act.

Through prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction, novels, essays, articles, and blog posts, your words transform people’s lives and loves and thoughts.

Take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine what it might feel like to embrace that power.

• Could you feel maybe 5% of that power?
• What would it feel like to believe that 100% of that power is yours for fifteen seconds?
• If you acted as if you had that power, what would you do?

With this feeling fresh in your mind, make a list of ten things you would do if you acted as if you had this amazing power.

They don’t have to be big, world-changing items. 

Maybe you could write down a recipe that your grandmother shared only with you.

Or perhaps you could write some ad copy for a local non-profit. But maybe you also want to write a satirical novel that highlights society’s inequities.

Whatever you want to do, add it to this list. When you think you’ve run out of ideas, try to write down just one more item.

Once you have this list in hand, circle the top five things that appeal. Narrow that list down to three.

Is there one of those three that carries more heat than the other two, that feels more do-able, that zaps your soul with a pop of electricity?

Maybe it’s time to go do that.

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ABOUT LA BOURGEOIS

LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois is a Kaizen-Muse Certified Creativity Coach and author who helps clients embrace the joy of their creative work and thrive while doing it.

Get more of her creativity ideas and techniques by subscribing to her newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/unlockyourcreativity.