MANILA: I'm doing it because I can, at 72. I'm spreading The Gospel of Creativity According to Frank Hilario as my legacy, sharing my talent, collecting only achievements, not assets, because my journey is my reward.
I will now quote my poster invitation:
Inviting you to a 3-hour Creativity Workshop, designed to be the first step in your Journey Of A Thousand Smiles. Come and join us in a work & play space where, with a little help from a friend, your mind and heart will open the doors (and windows) to the blessings of the outside world by cultivating your own creative spirit.
To a personal inner, richer world, everyone welcome!
A free Creativity Workshop offered by Frank Hilario, UP Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing (2011)
To introduce the idea here, let me simply say that I'm just following the excellent example of God when He created the world. What was His first wish? "Let there be light." My Gospel of Creativity is dedicated to that very first creativity scene: "Let there be light." You will know exactly what I mean when you attend my workshop.
Towards this end, if truth be told, I have been busy since 23 March 2013, or in the last 2 weeks, in designing a new creativity tool for writers, young, old or new. Last Friday, 05 April 2013, requested by Teacher Dolly delos Reyes and with the knowledge and consent of Vice Principal Josefina Pano, I conducted a free creative writing workshop at the Divine Light Academy in Las Piñas City attended by young student writers and young teachers in high school.
What happened? I have reported that in my essay, "Good Will Writing. When I want your creativity, I'll give it to you!" 07 April 2013 (Writers' Lib, blogspot.com). What happened next? That same day in the afternoon, with just a little nudge from me, my mind transformed the Writers' Lib Workshop into the Creativity Workshop, which now admits non-writers - and that could be you.
For a good reason, I cannot tell you here what exactly happens during the sessions, because that would rob the whole thing of the elements of novelty and surprise, but I can tell you that my Creativity Workshop is "your free view to your richer world" because it frees your mind from your own limited viewing of old but unexplored ideas as well as liberates you from limited thinking and in the next instant transports you into a world of new ideas. To see is to believe!
It's all in the attitude. That's why I call my brand of creativity Creattitudes, and as such, the name suggests Christ's own Beatitudes. You know, in the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are little lessons in positive metaphor; here are a few (Matthew 5: 3-6, New Revised Standard Version):
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
As a matter of fact, after you attend my Creativity Workshop, you may conclude that I probably derived the technique from these biblical metaphors. In fact I did not, but indeed the Beatitudes taken together suggest the approach I have invented.
Right now, you can see for yourself how fruitful the Attitude of Creattitudes is if you view my own mind products in my all-inclusive blog The Creattitudes Encyclopedia (blogspot.com). I have many blogs, but that blog itself has more than 1,500 long essays, that average 1,000 words each, written only in the last 7 years.
If you don't know it yet, I must tell you that as a writer, I am self-taught. I did not even study Journalism; I studied to be a teacher in an agricultural high school. When you're a high school teacher, you need more an absorptive & extractive than a creative mind. I got out of teaching because of circumstances beyond my control, but I'm glad I did. I returned to my first love, which was writing, and I have remained true to her.
The concepts that I now call Writers' Lib and Creativity Workshop are decidedly new, both less than a month old, but my surprising torrent of creativity has been with me for the last 7 years, starting when I was already 65 years old! So you can't blame me when I say, "Age doesn't matter because gray matter doesn't age when it's creative."
The extraordinary burst of my creative writing started in early 2006, when I began blogging in earnest, and especially when I became a correspondent of the American Chronicle, an online magazine. I estimate that the number of words I have so far uploaded to my blogs and the American Chronicle is equivalent to at least 24 books of 150 pages, 7" x 9" trim size, single-spaced, all text.
What about you? You don't have to be a so-called writer to enjoy and benefit from my Creativity Workshop. If you are a teacher, preacher, priest, planner, proposal packager, lecturer, speaker, sharer, columnist, or TV host, you can be sure that you the worker will be rewarded according to your labors.
Like, if you think you're an average thinker, I will help you smash your Thinkers' Block. If you think you're an average writer, I will help you smash your Writers' Block. You can be more creative no matter who you are - or how old. Look at me, I'm 72, but because of my creativity, I am confident enough to claim that I am "The World's Most Creative Writer" (see my blog, The Creattitudes Encyclopedia, blogspot.com).
If you can round up a minimum of 10 warm bodies to attend my workshop, I will be there, your place, not mine. All I ask is access to an LCD projector, which I use to present the workshop part by part, and to project onscreen selected outputs during the sessions, zoom in, zoom out. One learns, all learn.