POWER TO THE PINOY: Tapping Into Your Inner Crazy

Tapping into Your Inner Crazy

By Lalaine Chu-Benitez

Admit it.

A lot of us Pinoys are guilty of looking at artists in a very biased way, especially at the budding ones who are within our midst.  To us, they exist in a strange world all their own; they talk in what seems like alien language, sometimes gibberish; they are very absorbed, or even tortured, with their ideas and concepts. Most of the time, we don’t understand or don’t see the value in what they are doing; we find their ideas weird, unthinkable, highfalutin, unbelievable – in a nutshell, we think of them as crazy.

Well, that is until they become famous for creating something spectacular that will earn them some recognition.  And then, we eventually nod our heads to feign understanding.

The fact is, these people are the most gifted in the world.  To be able to think freely, unfettered by the constraints of conventions, established limits, or popular thinking, is an amazing ability that is the precursor to making great things happen.  

Imagination and creativity are responsible for man’s best inventions, most significant works of art, and greatest feats on earth and beyond.  It is how we went to the moon, how we do air and space travel, how we can have the world’s tallest building, why we have awe inspiring paintings on the fresco of the Sistine Chapel, it is why we sing and dance in thousands of different languages and music forms around the world today, and why each country has a unique culture made rich by arts and crafts punctuated by ethnic colors, textures, sounds and images.

Imagination is the stuff that keeps us evolving, growing intellectually and pushing the boundaries of our existence. Without which, man would probably still be living in caves, surviving a life of hunting and gathering, just because that’s how it was always done.

Contrary to what most of us think, imagination comes first before know-how, skill, passion and ambition.  Because what would be the use of the latter if we can’t even begin to consider potential and possibilities? Albert Einstein once said – “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

So the next time you feel the urge of dismissing an artist as strange just because he doesn’t fit into a square peg, think of what makes him special. Better yet, ‘get with the program’ and tap into your own brand of crazy.  Unleash your own imagination and innate creativity.  It’s just in there and it comes so naturally for Filipinos like us.

Who knows?  You just might discover your best contribution to the world yet.

This issue is dedicated to all the Filipino artists out there.

Taas Noo, Filipino!

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