Latest Blog Post

All of a sudden, as if from nowhere I am catapulted back to 22 years to where Philip Pullman released his landmark trilogy “His Dark Materials” – the first book was the Northern Lights.

I used to have trouble separating this trilogy out from The Lord of The Rings as the most important books I had ever read and then somewhere within that 22 year period became obvious to me that it was these books that were the most important.

I have even tried to indoctrinate my eldest daughter into the way of these books but she is not for turning and they are not for her as they do not fit her character.

Perhaps I was just in the right place at the right time and they sang to me and told me what I needed to hear, but I would encourage you to explore these books if you ever get the chance for several reasons.

Firstly amidst hundreds of thousands of books, many of which have been non-fiction, these still remain the most important I have read.

The reason for that is that they sparked and promoted creativity, lateral thinking and imagination more than any other books I’ve ever known.

Secondly, they constitute, just about, the greatest story I have ever heard.

The importance of promoting and sparking imagination and creativity could hardly ever be underestimated in a world where it seems that it is entirely and completely underestimated.

At a time where we need creativity and imagination the most, it seems we are encouraging our children to use it the least.

Philip Pullman, is essentially, a children’s Author but as I have always said there are no such thing as children’s books, only books.

I investigated children’s books at length, just before and then in the early stages of being a parent so that I could pass on what I had learned to my children as they grew up. I am not sure how successful I have been in that job, many of the children’s books I have read have been some of the best reading I have ever done.

Back to the point, I wonder.

I am catapulted back 22 years because Philip Pullman in the last few weeks has released book 2 of The Book of Dust trilogy, which was back into the same story at different timelines.

It has been two or three years since book one was released and will no doubt be two or three years until book three is released, but each time one of these books comes out I am transfixed and everything stops until I get to the end at least once.

At the same time that His Dark Materials trilogy is released on 3^rd Nov on IBBC and what I am led to believe is the most expensive BBC series ever produced.

The trailer is here. I dare you to watch it.

Coming from one who doesn’t really watch television I will be glued to this and will buy it when it needs to be bought and watch it again and again.

So why is this so important? And why do I think sparking creativity and imagination is so crucial?

This is one of the busiest weeks of clinical work I have had for a long time (10 sessions clinical) Implant surgery all day yesterday, implant surgery all day today and during all of those procedures I have had to think laterally and cleverly and creatively and build solutions to problems that I didn’t know I was going to encounter until I started the procedure itself.

Rarely do these solutions come from a textbook but the application of principles long learned and sometimes almost forgotten until a situation arises again where they are required.

This is the essence of creativity.

The ability to create something out of nothing, using only a mind to imagine.

If you’re involved in surgery or restorative dentistry or any other practical aspect of anything and you think you don’t need creativity or don’t use it, you’re wrong and if you think you can’t teach it and nurture it and learn it and train it and strengthen it then you’re wrong too.

An examination of creativity in the importance of imagination could hardly be started in a better place than the books I have told you about above.

Blog Post Number - 2175