Opening-up to Creativity * English with Raymond

THE THEATRE PRODUCTION OF BILLY ELLIOT

After seeing the theatre production of Billy Elliot recently, here in London UK, the inspiration and meaning of the story line just can’t disappear in to a faded memory. The story of Billy Elliot is one that just seems to linger. Watching Billy Elliot is to see how a normal family in the working class area of Durham, in the Midlands of the UK, have a very hard life and nothing is easy for them.

DESTINY?

Regardless of the difficulties, the potential that Billy Elliot has as somebody who is gifted eventually begins to make itself known to his family and friends, it becomes obvious. There’s sadness too when in the midst of the suffering and extreme poverty, the love of his family is such that they realise they don’t want their children (namely Billy) to suffer the same kind of destiny, working underground in a coal mine. And so, the character of Billy Elliot is born.

CREATIVE POTENTIAL

After seeing the production, for me certain realities are made clear. The first thing is that creativity is something that is within our grasp. It’s within the grasp of ordinary people. In other words, each of us has a gift, a calling to be who we really are. Billy Elliot was a dancer and proved himself by using his and his teacher’s creativity to make it clear.

FULFILMENT

People’s gifts don’t just simply appear on their own. We also need to recognize them and to accept them and to open-up to them. This is what creativity is all about, it’s about what it is that we most like to do, and what gives us the greatest of happiness, a buzz! A person’s gift may not be great in the world’s eyes, but it is great in each individual person’s eyes especially when a person recognises and develops their gifts to the full. It’s great too in God’s eyes, being created as a human being to be one’s self, fully human and fully alive. So, I guess the answer to finding creativity and inspiration is not as difficult as we often make out. I just need to be myself, and to find ways of being fully alive, expressive of self.