Creative Problem Solving
The emphasis in the US on defining education, learning, and even thinking as problem solving is overwhelmingly depressing. If I operate my thinking on the basis, the belief, that thinking is equivalent to problem solving then, when I wake up in the morning I find I have the following problems: How do I stand up? Do I have coffee before I brush my teeth or after? Should I turn off the radio alarm? Do I play the Mozart CD in the living room? Do I have my coffee before I wake my daughter? Just imagine how this reels out the rest of my morning moments. An inundation of problems first thing in the morning makes me psycho.
Ok, so what if I don't think of thinking as problem solving? What if I operate my thinking as a kind of feeling, an articulated feeling, a personal DJ? My morning thoughts would go something like this: I like that song. It's cold. What kind of day will it be today? Will I see the guy I like at work? I feel restless now. I'm arising. My mouth is dry. Now I might have a genuine question, but do I have to think of it as a problem? Would I rather moisten my mouth with toothpaste and chlorinated water or with the bitter brew I like so much? The narrative mode is more grounded but makes me anxious because most American narratives are based on violence of some kind and I worry that my story might lead me to despair because there continuous reframing is exhausting.
What if I operate my thinking as a creative act: I hear a song. I am inspired to add a word to the song or turn the radio off and sing my own song. I reach for my toothbrush and hum in my head my song with the rhythm of my brushing. Now, done with my song I overflow into the next moment, not by using judgment but through a manner I choose to call fulfillment. This free fall form is extremely pleasurable until my Protestant upbringing (and education) surges to the fore and I become immersed in guilt for not having worked hard enough to deserve this morning's grace.
My favorite way to operate my thinking is to allow it to be multiplex - but I wonder if this doesn't lead some people down the slippery slope to multiple personalities. For me it alleviates mental claustrophobia - though, at the worst of times I experience a kind of mental cacophony, m at the best of times I am able to experience a mental harmony that has occassionally been symphonic.
A belief that learning takes place only when we are faced with novel situations is a symptom of industrial age pathologies of over-stimulation. Constant stimulation and reflection are inimical. A belief that learning occurs by stimulation will enable us, will lead us to be able, to categorize knowledge and retrieve it more quickly but thinking is more akin to meditation and requires a focused lack of stimulation.