On Creativity

I was inspired to make this site by a confluence of factors. First, I have long felt that as a "software guy" by trade I ought to have a personal website. I was also searching for an alternative to social-media-as-a-modern-day-calling-card. By that I mean, when I would meet someone in real life and want to connect further, the standard options seemed limiting and unsatsifactory: my social media handle (a mosaic tile soon to be lost in the inscrutable algorithmic feed that is less about you understanding who I am than it is about Meta understanding who you are, and selling you stuff), and my phone number (unable to communicate a sense of self that cannot be reasonably represented as a surname - nice to meet you, Will Run Club). Lastly, I was also increasingly convicted that in the balance between consuming and creating, I was straying so far to the side of consumption as to lose the courage and ability to create.

At this point, I sought to articulate what creativity is to me and why it is important and inclusive enough to be take up 40% of my domain name by character count. Creativity has at once a low floor, and a high ceiling. In a sense, it is impossible to live a life devoid of creativity. Creativity doesn't have to be "art" and it doesn't even have to be novel. It could be as simple as creating a meal or a text message. On the other hand, the platonic ideal of creativity is a goal so lofty that it sometimes feels unattainable. With so much of the world already existing in a state of creation, rare is the person who can make a thing extraordinary with the materials that the rest of us too have at our disposal. The complexity and range inherent in creativity says to me that it is a frame of reference that intersects much of life, and even informs a right view of the divine and of human flourishing.

Creativity is also integral to self-expression, which makes it a fitting theme for a personal statement. In ways more or less explicit, creating reveals identity. By way of contrast, consuming reveals little to nothing about the self, apart from what is suggested by the choice of what to consume. In a theater full of people watching a movie, a group of real individuals are flattened into a single, generic dimension: the audience. What can you say about the identity of any person in the theater? That they are ostensibly the type of person who has an interest in seeing that movie, but that is very little and even that is not necessarily true. On the other hand, the creator asserts who they are, and how they view the world. Creators reveal themselves to hold particular values, come from a particular culture, and assert a particular aesthetic sensibility. If you want to know someone, "you will know them by their fruits" (Matt 7:20).

To that end, this site is a metaphorical garden where I can share the fruits of my creativity, meager as they are. By design, it is an incomplete representation of my person, but it is an important lens. I'm putting this out there, not to impress prospective employers or build a following but to start a conversation. If you are reading this, you probably know how to contact me (if not, good luck). I hope you get something out of my creative work, and I would love to engage with yours, whatever it looks like.

— Will