This article about gingerbread constructions, creativity, and vision is on the web site with pictures -- I recommend you read it there!!
http://www.6seconds.org
(And text version is below as well)

I hope your September has been fabulous -- have a creative weekend and a fantabulous October.
- Josh

A View from the Gingerbread House

Patty, my wife, and her friend Edith decided to
enter a gingerbread house in the county fair, and
roped me into candy architecture. The contest:
Take a photo of a Victorian and recreate it in
edible materials.

Some hundred hours later, a 2-story Victorian
bake shop stood above a California cliff --
complete with waves, surfboard, sand bucket...
And cakes in the windows. There is even wall
paper inside the house (made of Japanese nori
for making sushi -- not exactly candy, but edible!)

Making the house was a pleasure and a pain.
So much of life has these dimensions juxtaposed.
Attaching hundreds of shingles made from
BlackJack gum left me bleary. However laughing
with Patty and Edith made it bearable. The
process -- the journey -- brought us joy and pride.

Perhaps the most intriguing window on this
project is the creative challenges of
"Eliminating Impossible" and "Renewing Vision."

Eliminating Impossible. It's not possible to
recreate every detail of a Victorian mansion in
gingerbread, right? We can't have crashing
waves made of candy, right? It's crazy to make
a tiny model of the gingerbread house inside
the window of the gingerbread house, isn't it?
As soon as we begin to "impossiblize" we shut
down the endless avenues of creativity.

Eliminating Impossible is about staying open,
about checking the impulse to dismiss an idea
simply because it's challenging. After a 13
hour stint of decorating, Edith arrived the next
day with a long "punch list" of tasks. I jumped
in with, "And let's make an umbrella on the
beach too!" Edith's first reaction was the
"you've got to be kidding glare." This is a
normal reaction to stress and complexity.

Then Edith eliminated impossible -- she laughed
and said, "Why not! Let's just finish these
other challenges first." Eliminating Impossible
requires noticing and managing your emotions,
and a key is finding pleasure in defying the
odds. I haven't asked her, but I suspect Edith
is gleeful about doing what others say can't be
done.

In daily life, Eliminating Impossible is as simple
(and hard) as striking the word "can't" from your
vocabulary. Begin by noticing yourself say
"impossible," then notice yourself thinking it.
Just today I was on the phone with Anabel (my boss)
talking through a project. "I'd so like to send
off the draft on Monday," she says hopefully. My
first reaction is to think, "Impossible!" I want
to crawl under my desk and groan. This belief,
this perception, colors the whole way I see the
project and it looms large and daunting.

"Pashaw!" I think to myself, "This is not hard.
Actually it's fun!" And say, "OK! Let's do it."
Eliminating Impossible might be an excuse for
workaholism, but it certainly is a recipe for
more satisfaction. You can ALWAYS BE RIGHT if
you claim, "Impossible" and make it so. But that
success is hollow and sad -- especially compared
to the joy that comes when you make work into play.

Renewing Vision is about seeing the old in new
ways. This is the essence of making a gingerbread
bake shop.
"How can we make those hundreds of dentals?"
"Maybe Smints would work!"

"Does someone have an idea for the fence along the cliff?"
"Try these candy cigarettes -- that looks just right!"

From chairs made of Starbursts and gum with Tic
Tac legs (because every bake shop needs tables
and chairs inside), to the surf board made of
taffy, the creative process is about seeing the
familiar with fresh eyes.

Children can do this so well. Last week Max and
I were walking on the beach. Like a gleefully
broken record, he repeated the 3-year-old-mantra:
"Look Daddy, Look!" He was constantly searching
for the unusual in the every day (to him it's not)
and finding magic in the simplest moments. He
looks at the world with fewer assumptions and with
more wonder.

Hills of sand became mountains. Even garbage on
the beach was an exciting conversation about
taking care of the Earth. Abundant with curiosity,
Maxie naturally and effortlessly renews vision.
As a result, he sees more of the world.

Renewing Vision requires us to suspend certainty
-- to give up "knowing the answer," limiting the
possibilities, in exchange for a fresh look.

Like Eliminating Impossible, this is an effort of
suspending final judgment. Staying flexible,
maintaining uncertainty, takes a delicious blend of
courage and whimsy. How ready are you to look at
the certainties in your life and ask, "What if
there is more to this story?" How open are you
to finding the marvelous in the mundane, to
looking at the familiar landscape with new eyes?

I suspect more than anything else, these are
emotional challenges. In our hurried lives, with
the pressure to fit in, to succeed, to keep up,
staying open feels dangerous. Unconventional
thinking means we might get left behind,
embarrassed, or get the short end of the stick.
But the accepted answers are inadequate, and the
conventional wisdom isn't enough -- so we've got
to find our way past impossibilities and
see in new ways.

******
Please feel free to forward, and keep this part too:
This is an EQ Reflection from Six Seconds EQ Network (www.6seconds.org). ©2004 Joshua Freedman, All Rights Reserved.

To learn more about enriching your personal life, school, or business through emotional intelligence, visit us online: http://www.6seconds.org