Creativity is an American Value

For weekend pondering: Since there is so much talk about "values" and "morals" these days, and how Republicans allegedly have cornered the market on them, I think it's satisfying to remember that creativity is also a value, and that "our side" has alot of that. Here's one example.

In Book of Qualities, artist J. Ruth Gendler describes many qualities as if they were people, some of whom know each other. A few of them:

Patience: Patience wears my grandmother's filigree earrings. She bakes marvelous dark bread. She has beautiful hands. She carries great sacks of peace and purses filled with small treasures. You don't notice Patience right away in a crowd, but suddenly you see her all at once, and then she is so beautiful you wonder why you never saw her before.

Courage: Courage has roots. She sleeps on a futon on the floor and lives close to the ground. Courage looks you straight in the eye. She is not impressed with powertrippers, and she knows first aid. Courage is not afraid to weep and she is not afraid to pray, even when she is not sure who she is praying to. When Courage walks, it is clear that she has made the journey from loneliness to solitude. The people who told me she is stern were not lying; they just forgot to mention that she is kind.

Greed: Greed is lonely and impulsive. He eats his food quickly and can't remember what it tastes like. He wants to make things stand still so he can understand, but he is always running somewhere himself. He was very cold as a child, and he still fears that he will never be warm enough.

Greed is a tyrannical boss. He needs a reason for everything. He used to disguise his temper with a thin layer of politeness. Since he has become rich and famous, he doesn't bother with amenities. He masks his fear of women with contempt. He exports nightmares on the international commodities market, an advertising executive turned pornographer of the soul.

Honesty: Honesty is the most vulnerable man I have ever met. He is simple and loving. He lives in a small town on a cliff near the beach. I had forgotten how many stars there are in the midnight sky until I spent a week with him at his house by the sea. (Thanks to Atrios' Eschaton blog.)

A few more from Gendler's website:

Stillness will meet you for tea or a walk by the ocean. She is more sensitive than we can even imagine and she does not explain herself much. Her favorite time is dawn. (Image above is "Stillness" by J. Ruth Gendler.)

Excitement wears orange socks. Despair papered her bathroom walls with newspaper articles about acid rain. Joy drinks pure water.