【TED】拥抱自己的创造力

中英文稿

我希望今天可以谈谈创意。 很多人真的很吝于 给自己机会 发挥创意。 这情有可原。 我们多多少少都会 怀疑自己的才华。 记得在我二十岁出头时 偶然发现了一个故事， 对当时的我意义重大。

我当时很迷艾伦·金斯伯格 （Allen Ginsberg）， 正在读他的诗作， 我正在读—— 他参与了许多访谈—— 那时候，小威廉· F ·巴克利 有个电视节目 叫《射击线》。 金斯伯格在那个节目中 一边吹着口琴， 一边吟唱着奎师那 （Hare Krishn）的颂歌。 回到纽约后， 身旁的知识分子朋友 全都告诉他： “你知不知道大家都觉得 你看起来像个白痴？ 全国的人都在嘲笑你。” 他说：“那是我的工作。 我是诗人，我要扮演傻子。 大部分的人整天都在工作， 他们回到家，和另一半吵架， 吃东西，打开老旧的电视机， 电视上有人试着推销东西给他们， 而我把那些都扰乱了。 我在节目上吟唱奎师那颂歌， 他们则坐在床上，说： ‘那个傻了吧唧的诗人是谁？’ 然后就无法入睡了，对吧？” 那就是他身为诗人的工作。

这个故事让我感到了解脱， 因为我认为大部分人都希望 提供给世界高质量的东西， 世人认为不错或重要的东西。 那真的是大敌， 因为我们所作所为的好与坏 并非由我们来决定； 如果我们从历史中学到了点什么， 那就是，世人的批评极不可靠， 对吧？

所以，你得自问： 人类的创造力有意义吗？ 怎么说呢， 大部分的人不会花很多时间 去思考诗歌创作，对吧？ 他们要过日子， 没有那么关心艾伦·金斯伯格 或任何人的诗作， 直到他们的父亲过世， 要出席葬礼， 或者你失去了自己的孩子， 或者你心碎了， 别人不爱你了， 于是突然间， 你拼命想在 这样的人生中理出头绪： “曾经有人感觉这么糟糕吗？ 他们是怎么走出阴霾的？”

或者反过来，很棒的事情发生了。 你遇到某人，心花怒放。 你深爱着他们， 甚至被蒙蔽了双眼。 你被爱冲昏了头： “以前有人有这种感觉吗？ 我这是怎么了？” 此时，艺术就不再是奢侈品， 而是一种食粮， 我们需要它。

好的，那它究竟是什么呢？ 人类的创意就是大自然 在我们体内呈现出来的形式。 当我们看到，比如说—— 北极光，对吧？ 我年轻时候出演过 电影《雪地黄金犬》， 拍摄地在阿拉斯加， 我们晚上走到外面， 天空荡漾着紫色、 粉红色、白色的涟漪， 那是我见过最美丽的东西。 仿佛天空在刷什么小把戏， 美极了。 日落时分的大峡谷， 也非常美。 我们知道那些都很美。 但堕入爱河呢？ 你的爱人相当美。 我有四个孩子。 看他们玩耍， 看他们假扮成蝴蝶， 或在房子旁跑来跑去， 做各种各样的事， 那画面真的很美。

我相信我们存在于 太空中的这颗行星上， 是要来帮助彼此的，对吧？ 首先，我们要生存， 接着我们要茁壮成长。 茁壮成长， 是为了去表达我们自己。 那么问题来了： 我们需要了解自己。 你喜爱什么？ 如果你能接近你所爱的， 便能揭示出 “你是谁”， 然后再扩展出去。

对我来说，这非常容易。 我十二岁时就第一次 参与职业戏剧演出， 出演的戏剧是 萧伯纳的《圣女贞德》， 地点在麦卡特剧院， 然后，砰！我“恋爱”了。 我的世界瞬间开阔起来。 那份职业—— 我现在快五十岁了—— 那份职业从未曾 停止回馈给我， 且回馈得越来越多， 奇怪的是， 大部分都是透过 我演出的角色来回馈的。

我演过警察，演过罪犯， 我演过牧师，演过罪人。 这一生，这三十多年的魔法， 在于你会开始了解， 我的经历，我，伊森， 并没有我想象的那么独特。 我和这些角色有很多共同点， 他们都和我有某些共同点。 于是你会开始意识到， 我们彼此的连结多么紧密。

我的曾祖母，戴拉·霍尔·沃克·葛林 （Della Hall Walker Green）， 临终前 在医院中写下了一本小自传， 长度大概只有三十六页， 她花了大约五页描写 有次她为一出戏剧 制作戏服的经历。 她首任丈夫只占了 一个段落的篇幅而已， 她种棉花种了五十年， 也只是稍微提到而已， 却有整整五页内容 是关于制作戏服。 而当我看到——我妈妈给了我 一条曾祖母做的被子， 能感觉得到， 她在表达自己， 其中蕴含着一种真实的力量。 我记得和我的继兄/弟 在《捍卫战士》上映的那一年 去电影院看这部电影， 我记得我们走出购物中心， 外面非常热， 我看着他， 我们都觉得那部电影 就像是神的召唤—— 怎么形容呢，应该说 我们的感受其实截然不同。 我想要成为演员， 想要创造让人有共鸣的东西， 我就是想要参与。 而他想从军。 我们那时玩的就是扮演 联邦调查局、军人、骑士， 我拿着剑摆姿势， 而他打造了能用的十字弓， 朝树木射箭。 所以，他入伍了。 他才刚以上校的身分 从特种部队退役， 是个得过许多勋章的退伍军人， 参与过阿富汗和伊拉克的实战， 现在执教于为阵亡将士子弟 所办的航海营。 他的一生都在追随他的热情。 他的创造力是领导能力， 领导他人， 以他的勇气去帮助他人。 他觉得那是他的天职， 这份工作也回馈了他。 我们都知道，人生很短， 我们要如何利用好这短暂的人生？ 我们有把时间花在 对我们来说最重要的地方吗？ 大部分人并没有。 我的意思是，那很难。 习惯的拉力非常大， 那就是为什么孩子相当有创造力， 因为他们尚未建立任何习惯， 他们也不在意自己做得好不好。 他们在堆沙堡时并不会说： “我认为我将来会成为 很棒的沙堡建造者。” 他们就只是单纯投入到 面前的事情当中 —— 舞蹈、绘画、 建造某样东西， 只要他们有机会， 他们的个体性就会让你印象深刻。 那很美。 每当谈到创造力时， 我有时会担心这一点， 因为它会有一种很好的感觉， 让人觉得很温暖或很愉悦。 其实不然。 它是必要的， 是我们疗愈彼此的方式。 借由唱出我们的歌， 说出我们的故事， 邀请你，说： “嘿，听我说，我也会听你说，” 此时我们才开启了对话。 你这么做，疗愈就开始了。 我们会走出自己的角落， 开始见证彼此共同的人性， 开始维护它。 当我们这么做时，好事就会发生。

 因此，如果你想要协助 你的族群、家人， 如果你想要协助你的朋友， 你就得表达自己。 若要表达自己，就得认识自己。 那其实超级简单， 你只要追随所爱。 我们面前原本没有路， 你得要迈开步伐，才会走出一条路， 而你必须愿意扮傻子。 别去读你 “该” 读的书， 去读你 “要” 读的书。 别听你习惯听的那些音乐， 花点时间听一些新的音乐。 花点时间，和你平常 不互动的人交谈。 我保证，如果你这么做， 你就会觉得自己很蠢。 而那恰恰就是重点： 扮演一个傻子。 （弹吉他） （唱歌）我想要去奥斯汀， 我想要待在家。 邀请我们的朋友过来， 但仍然孤独一人。 不畏艰险， 冷静面对。 让大家都尊重 那个扮演傻子的我。

I was hoping today to talk a little bit about creativity. You know, a lot of people really struggle to give themselves permission to be creative. And reasonably so. I mean, we're all a little suspect of our own talent. And I remember a story I came across in my early 20s that kind of meant a lot to me.

I was really into Allen Ginsberg, and I was reading his poetry, and I was reading -- he did a lot of interviews -- and one time, William F. Buckley had this television program called "Firing Line," and Ginsberg went on there and sang a Hare Krishna song while playing the harmonium. And he got back to New York to all his intelligentsia friends, and they all told him, "Don't you know that everybody thinks you're an idiot, and the whole country's making fun of you?" And he said, "That's my job. I'm a poet, and I'm going to play the fool. Most people have to go to work all day long, and they come home and they fight with their spouse, and they eat, and they turn on the old boob tube, and somebody tries to sell them something, and I just screwed all that up. I went on and I sang about Krishna, and now they're sitting in bed and going, 'Who is this stupid poet?' And they can't fall asleep, right?" And that's his job as a poet.

And so, I find that very liberating, because I think that most of us really want to offer the world something of quality, something that the world will consider good or important. And that's really the enemy, because it's not up to us whether what we do is any good, and if history has taught us anything, the world is an extremely unreliable critic. Right?

So you have to ask yourself: Do you think human creativity matters? Well, hmm. Most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about poetry. Right? They have a life to live, and they're not really that concerned with Allen Ginsberg's poems or anybody's poems, until their father dies, they go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart, they don't love you anymore, and all of a sudden, you're desperate for making sense out of this life, and, "Has anybody ever felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud?"

Or the inverse -- something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes. You love them so much, you can't even see straight. You know, you're dizzy. "Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me?" And that's when art's not a luxury, it's actually sustenance. We need it.

OK. Well, what is it? Human creativity is nature manifest in us. We look at the, oh ... the aurora borealis. Right? I did this movie called "White Fang" when I was a kid, and we shot up in Alaska, and you go out at night and the sky was like rippling with purple and pink and white, and it's the most beautiful thing I ever saw. It really looked like the sky was playing. Beautiful. You go to Grand Canyon at sundown. It's beautiful. We know that's beautiful. But fall in love? Your lover's pretty beautiful. I have four kids. Watching them play? Watching them pretend to be a butterfly or run around the house and doing anything, it's so beautiful.

And I believe that we are here on this star in space to try to help one another. Right? And first we have to survive, and then we have to thrive. And to thrive, to express ourselves, alright, well, here's the rub: we have to know ourselves. What do you love? And if you get close to what you love, who you are is revealed to you, and it expands.

For me, it was really easy. I did my first professional play. I was 12 years old. I was in a play called "Saint Joan" by George Bernard Shaw at the McCarter Theatre, and -- boom! -- I was in love. My world just expanded. And that profession -- I'm almost 50 now -- that profession has never stopped giving back to me, and it gives back more and more, mostly, strangely, through the characters that I've played.

I've played cops, I've played criminals, I've played priests, I've played sinners, and the magic of this over a lifetime, over 30 years of doing this, is that you start to see that my experiences, me, Ethan, is not nearly as unique as I thought. I have so much in common with all these people. And so they have something in common with me. You start to see how connected we all are.

My great-grandmother, Della Hall Walker Green, on her deathbed, she wrote this little biography in the hospital, and it was only about 36 pages long, and she spent about five pages on the one time she did costumes for a play. Her first husband got, like, a paragraph. Cotton farming, of which she did for 50 years, gets a mention. Five pages on doing these costumes. And I look -- my mom gave me one of her quilts that she made, and you can feel it. She was expressing herself, and it has a power that's real.

I remember my stepbrother and I went to go see "Top Gun," whatever year that came out. And I remember we walked out of the mall, it was, like, blazing hot, I just looked at him, and we both felt that movie just like a calling from God. You know? Just ... But completely differently. Like, I wanted to be an actor. I was like, I've got to make something that makes people feel. I just want to be a part of that. And he wanted to be in the military. That's all we ever did was play FBI, play army man, play knights, you know, and I'd like, pose with my sword, and he would build a working crossbow that you could shoot an arrow into a tree. So he joins the army. Well, he just retired a colonel in the Green Berets. He's a multidecorated combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He now teaches a sail camp for children of fallen soldiers. He gave his life to his passion. His creativity was leadership, leading others, his bravery, to help others. That was something he felt called to do, and it gave back to him.

We know this -- the time of our life is so short, and how we spend it -- are we spending it doing what's important to us? Most of us not. I mean, it's hard. The pull of habit is so huge, and that's what makes kids so beautifully creative, is that they don't have any habits, and they don't care if they're any good or not, right? They're not building a sandcastle going, "I think I'm going to be a really good sandcastle builder." They just throw themselves at whatever project you put in front of them -- dancing, doing a painting, building something: any opportunity they have, they try to use it to impress upon you their individuality. It's so beautiful.

It's a thing that worries me sometimes whenever you talk about creativity, because it can have this kind of feel that it's just nice, you know, or it's warm or it's something pleasant. It's not. It's vital. It's the way we heal each other. In singing our song, in telling our story, in inviting you to say, "Hey, listen to me, and I'll listen to you," we're starting a dialogue. And when you do that, this healing happens, and we come out of our corners, and we start to witness each other's common humanity. We start to assert it. And when we do that, really good things happen.

So, if you want to help your community, if you want to help your family, if you want to help your friends, you have to express yourself. And to express yourself, you have to know yourself. It's actually super easy. You just have to follow your love. There is no path. There's no path till you walk it, and you have to be willing to play the fool. So don't read the book that you should read, read the book you want to read. Don't listen to the music that you used to like. Take some time to listen to some new music. Take some time to talk to somebody that you don't normally talk to. I guarantee, if you do that, you will feel foolish. That's the point. Play the fool.

(Plays guitar)

(Sings) Well, I want to go Austin, and I wanna stay home. Invite our friends over but still be alone. Live for danger. Play it cool. Have everyone respect me for being a fool.