as they are delighting in the truth.
I bring up second graders and their
general awesomeness because of
our topic in this chapter: art and
creativity.
If you go into a room full of seven-
and eight-year-olds and ask, “How
many of you will be professional
athletes?” you’ll get a bunch of raised
hands. Same thing if you ask about
becoming president or living on Mars.
Those numbers are completely out
of step with reality, obviously. I’d bet
good money that none of those
second graders would end up doing
those things. A few might, of course,
but it’s still a safe bet.
But that’s not the only thing they’ll
raise their hands for. If you ask them,
“How many of you are artists?” you’ll
see nearly every hand in the room
shoot up.
Contrast that with a room full of
adults. How many of us will raise our
hands—5 percent? One?
66 Solutions
I don’t bring this up to point out
how silly second graders are. The
opposite, really. Their attitude about
art and creativity has a lot to teach
us. They know more than we do!
They naturally express their unique
creativity in everything they do, from
math to writing to conversations to
forest exploration.
When Jesus said, “Truly I tell you,
unless you change and become like
little children, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven,”I think part of
what he was talking about is a child’s
innate sense of creativity.
As we age, we lose our fearlessness.
We become less concerned with
expressing ourselves than with
managing how others see us.
And not for no reason! Expression, at
least as we age, involves risk. Over
time we learn that some expressions
earn us applause or money or
approval, while others earn us ridicule
or fear or rejection. So the spark of