Yesterday I wrote about the phrase drawing a blank. I thought that what I wrote was the end of my speculations about this. Turned out, it wasn’t so. This morning I was puttering, sort of getting ready to head to town, and the term surfaced in the form of a cartoon. I pictured and then drew an arial photo of the skull. Then I drew cross sections and labeled them Here and now, Then, Drawing a Blank and What’s for Dinner.

I did this drawing in between doing other things. I looked at it when I was done and deemed it to be funny.

No one was more surprised than me, than to in the midst of doing unrelated things, to have this cartoon come to mind. Correction, I didn’t even think about it – I just drew it. I do not know if others think this way when they create something, but I thought, yep, funny.

The term critical thinking is all the rage, and it has been all the rage for the past twenty years. It pertains to thinking logically. An adherence to factual information is also a defining term. Critical thinking is a quantitative entity.

Whenever I hear this term, I cringe. This is because I know that the term creative thinking is not getting its just due. When I do mention it, usually in the context of critical thinking, people generally give me the brush off.

The creative portion of the term creative thinking must be more innate, which is why people don’t trust those who teach it. Another reason is that it is equated with inspiration, which is considered to have more internal sources. For example, my idea about drawing a blank was a form of one stop shopping. It came to me out of the blue. Maybe some critical thinkers have this occur to them. However, most likely not as often as the creative impulse.

I’ve heard said that some have a natural creative bent. But I’ve never heard of anyone having a natural critical bent.

Now if I sat down, with just a pen and a piece of paper on the table before me, would the creative juices start flowing? I have to say that I do best when I have an audience, be it family members or friends. But I still do a good job of keeping myself amused.

Today, Pete and I went over my Palmer Community Foundation grant paperwork. I was surprised by my reaction in that I was extremely proprietary. And so I was not at all gracious when Pete set to revising and editing my work. The reason I was this way is because I had worked so hard on this grant, and so I could not see where changes needed to be made.

As it turned out, I got what I wanted, which was affirmation. I do have a decent draft on hand, but I am going to make some changes. Cest la Bovine, or such is cow.

Next: 74. 3/16/24: Hi ho, hi ho, It’s Off to Work I Go