Sloth
By Peter LloydThis is the seventh and last in a series of Right Brain Workouts devoted to the Seven Creative Juices. Using the Seven Deadly Sins as my starting point, I've audaciously re-positioned them as the natural forces that drive creativity, innovation, invention, the arts, and human progress. Today we meet Sloth.
What? Wake up? Who me? Oh, yeah, it's my turn to talk about creativity and innovation.
Alright. I'm Sloth, the door to your dreams. Behind them lie the keys to creation. Hang out with me, and I'll show you how to dream—day dream, night dreams, lucid dreams, and nightmares. Be my friend, put me in charge, and we'll lie around and tap the great creative powers of your unconscious. Is that enough? Can I go now?
No? Okay, then. Most of my friends like the way I help them approach and solve problems. We think about working and shuffle our papers around a little bit. Refill our coffee cups. We sharpen our pencils. Then we check the fridge. Sit down, get back up and check the TV or YouTube, just to make sure there's not something playing that might have something to do with the job we're working on. You never know. Well, good night... You want more?
Well, a whole lot of innovation just happens, you know. New ideas just appear in dreams. That's how Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz came up with the structure of benzene. Yep, it’s true. Did you know that I sung the melody to "Yesterday" in a dream of Paul McCartney? Oh, sure. Elias Howe's sewing machine, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Otto Loewi's Nobel Prize, a mess of Stephen King's nightmarish novels, and a new golf swing for Jack Nicklaus—all from dreams. This is making me yawn.
Anyway, I help creative people slowly, on the sly, out of respect. I never interrupt you when you’re busy. Never bother you while you're talking, thinking logically, making deals, making time... That’s why I say, a busy mind never knows its own dreams.
You gotta relax to get my help. Remember Al Einstein? I help him, dontcha know. Yeah, he used to daydream about riding on a beam of light instead of doing his arithmetic. And I rescued a buddy of mine, Konrad Zuse. We invented first programmable computer, because he was too lazy to do calculations.
Not bad for a Sloth, eh? Listen, I may look lazy on the outside, but inside, we're talking brainstorms!
Well, you go on about your business, now. We'll talk, whenever you're ready to listen.
That's why I'm last of the Creative Juices. Can I go back to sleep now?
Read all Seven Creative Juices: Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Envy, Anger, and Sloth.
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