Excuse the title, but I’ve always loved Star Trek.
Why? Much because of the remarkable imagination and talent that went into creating it.
Any show that can stand the test of time like Star Trek, and spawn so many offshoots, has to be worth admiring.
And, indeed, learning from.
What am I talking about now, you may well ask? (A familiar feeling for sufferers of my musings, I suspect.)
I’m talking about space. Not the vast unexplored universes that Kirk and company carouse through, but a more metaphorical space.
The space to be creative.
This week, I had a day off. That’s news in itself, and almost deserving a blog post of its own.
(Image removed)Above is the gentle River Cam, with Magdalene College in the background, one of the places where I strolled.
(Image removed)
This is the wonderful Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where I had a fascinating time journeying through so many ages and places of human existence.
(And yes, before you ask, I did pop into a good pub, too. You know me so well.)
The point of all this is that since I moved life to Cambridge, I’ve been hugely busy.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about that in the slightest. Quite the reverse.
It’s been a delight meeting so many new people, learning new skills, and exploring this new world.
But, as ever in life, there’s a but.
At my heart, I’m a writer. I invent characters and stories. I play with words.
And that joyful existence was struggling for a meaningful foothold alongside all the other work I was doing.
We’re currently on the Easter break at the University, so I stopped writing lectures and talks, and helping with presentations and websites, and planning for coaching sessions…
Instead, I took a break.
And wow, what a difference it made.
In just a few hours of the freedom of strolling, perusing, musing, and yes, a little drinking, too…
I came up with a new outline for a radio comedy I’ve been working on, some thoughts about a new book, a plan for next year’s lectures, and also a structure for a couple of school talks.
Wow squared. It was such a delight of a day that it left me near breathless. It just felt great.
And it reminded me of an important lesson.
The very subject of this blog, no less.
Creativity requires space. It's as simple as that.
If there’s something you need to work on, or work out, you need to give yourself the chance to do it.
As Kirk might have put it, in that immortal introduction…
(Imagine the voice…)
Space… the creative frontier.