How interacting with others makes us more creative

I was always aware that meeting people who enjoyed conversation was good for generating new ideas for writing and for living in new ways and that it is two way
But I find, in addition, writing to friends can have a bigger impact than I would have believed.One of my friends I knew at University and we have quite a lot on common including coming from the same part of England.Yet because our interests only overlap, each of us might say something unexpected or new which makes the other think
Another friend is Australian and the vocabulary there is slightly different.However his background in terms of religion and being another “lapsed” Catholic gives us common ground.I find that without conscious effort both of these people affect the words I use when I am writing.I am surprised what a big effect it can have.
Yet I have another friend who is not a lapsed Catholic and who is interested in the meaning of life and has studied and written about things I would find very painful like trauma and the holocaust.Yet his ideas give me new trains of thought and remind me of how different friends can be.He is still a Christian in a meaningful way.
I have one school friend and it’s really nice to talk to someone who has the same accent and knows about your adolescent years
The ideal seems to be someone who is different but not too different and that you need to feel a sense of trust with them.And they need to have an interest in you and what you do
As we get older we might mix less with people unlike ourselves so I’d advise people to at least talk to people with different ideas,views, religion or lack of.
I have a very close friend who is stunningly knowledgeable about both Art and Music and we share a common interest in cooking and music.I have someone I can ask for help or information as I am not very well up in Art History.
I imagine again it is easy to stay friends with people who are very similar to you.I am lucky as I taught people from many parts of the world so I am happy now to meet people who have moved here from other countries or people who have a different ethnic background.Because even a slightly different perspective on the world is beneficial especially if you want to write
My husband was critical of writing and he sometimes said to me if I read him one of my poems
Did YOU write that?
I think he didn’t believe that starting to write poetry after being a mathematician was a very bright idea.But on the whole he did encourage me, mainly to make me write more stories about Stan and his cat Emile and Dave the paramedic
I also recall now writing a long poetic email to a foreign friend.He wrote back,Where have you copied this writing from?
I answered,I wrote it myself.He never responded
I had the same thing when I wrote a poem about numbers which I sent to a mathematical friend.He wrote back saying,I wonder who wrote that
Don’t let it get you down if people unintentionally seem a bit surprised you can do things they didn’t know you could.
But, on the other hand, be aware some people might be envious if you learn new skills and they may say really offensive words to you.So ignore them.
I imagine then that since talking/writing to others affects my poetry it must affect our minds and so I think it’s a good idea to do new things or even walk a different way to town and go into different shops.Go to see a film that is not the type you usually see
Take an interest in people of different religions/ occupations; difference, even slight, improves how our minds work
Even using social media helps our brains as we age.So I read.
Naturally we want stability and familiarity in our lives so I am only talking of adding to that or even talking about a different topic than you usually do.Women are interested in more than recipes and men can be interested in cookery or sewing or mathematics as well as politics and drinking whiskey
The more different people and views, the better we learn always remembering a basis of trust,kindness and respect for the other person’s privacy and need for private time even if you live with them.We all need our “sacred space”
If you are shy, tell yourself people will benefit from meeting you if you can join in a conversation with just a few words.Lots of us blush or get weak knees in certain settings.Recall most people don’t notice as much as we imagine and that a lively spirit makes one beautiful