Creativity: Is it inherited or learned?

Creativity. What comes to mind when you hear that word?  Does it only apply to things artistic?  Are everyday things creative?  Is creativity inherited or a learned skill?

I believe everyone is creative, it's just that some people are better able to display their creative endeavors.  My husband is a very talented architectural designer.  No one would question whether or not he is creative.

Me? Not so much.  I can't draw a straight line even with a ruler.  My sewing attempts are feeble at best.  It's not that I don't have (what I think are) good ideas, I just lack the talent for implementing them.

Then there are my daughters.  Today I walked in to Diva's (very messy) room to get something.  There, on her guitar, I found this:




It was a song she had written. We've just lately noticed that she loves to write stories, really detailed stories.  She also loves Taylor Swift. So her writing a love song at 10 years of age shouldn't really surprise me.

Then there is DD2.  Like me, art is not her forte.  But she can spin fantastical tales that keep her friends in stitches.  For an entire school year, she had a story going on that had the tag line "take the popcorn out of the microwave...".  All she had to do was say that and her friends would bust up laughing.  Even her school work isn't exempt from her humor.  During her culinary class this year, every assignment she turned in had to have a touch of a pirate theme.  Her teacher told me that she always looked forward to seeing DD2's assignments just so she could see how pirates would somehow be related to grilled pineapple.

And then there is DD1.  During her sophmore year of high school, she was voted the most talented female writer in the county.  She's written several short novels that she hopes to publish someday.  In the mean time, she's going to nursing school so she can support her writing habit.

So, did the girls inherit their creative abilities from their dad or did we just give them the encouragement and room they needed to find their own niches? All I know is that they didn't inherit any creative genes from me.


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