In his essay, “The Rhythm of Effort and Recovery,” Laban concludes by noting that “the ideal is that harmonized effort should penetrate work and sleep as much as possible. But art in leisure-time remains indispensable.” Consequently, my final holiday selection is Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by comic actor and writer John Cleese.
Initially aiming to be a lawyer, Cleese stumbled into writing comic sketches while at Cambridge and discovered, to his surprise, that he could be creative. Defining creativity as “new ways of thinking about things,” Cleese notes that creativity “can be seen in every area of life.” Moreover, “anyone can be creative.”
The rest of this short and pithy book is devoted to broad suggestions for nurturing your own creativity. These suggestions, which overlap in interesting ways with the other books I have suggested, include the importance of dreaming and setting aside spaces and times for relaxed deliberation without interruptions.
So this holiday season, set aside a little time for reading, dreaming, breathing, and having fun in creative ways. And above all, stay safe!