Reading · Kathryn’s Newsletter

Thirty years ago, I was in the spring semester of my third year of college. I took a class called “Creativity and Problem Solving.”One of the assignments was to interview a creative person. I loved this assignment and have written previously about my first interview in this post.

I was fascinated by learning about another’s creativity and eager to continue this process. One of my final projects for the class became a collection of interviews about creativity. Limited by time and distance, most of these “interviews” were actually written surveys collected through letters. Although email was available on college campuses and some of my correspondents had email, most of my correspondents wrote hand-written letters.

Scrapbook page for my great “Aunt Sis,” Wanita Barett.

I assembled the letters into a scrapbook, mounting them in their original envelopes along with photos of the people, their creations, and/ or times I had spent with them as a child.

In the past few weeks, I’ve returned to this scrapbook. It is a treasure, offering me a glimpse of my creative legacy and the voices of some of my relatives who are no longer living.

My grandmother, a painter, wrote about how her father had inspired her creativity. He told her wonderful imaginative stories and he was also a painter; she loved to watch him paint. My grandmother grew up in New York City and she and her father would visit museums every week.

Letter from my great uncle, Vern Vosburg.

I’m touched not only by the responses but by the care people took writing and what the letters meant to them too. For example, my great uncle wrote about how his creativity was motivated by memories and connection. He also noted that this letter to me was only the third he ever remembered writing, the first two had been to two of his brothers. That made the response feel that much more significant.

Revisiting this project has also made me curious to share these questions again 30 years later. I would love to hear how you would respond to this creative inquiry? Below is a copy of the questions I sent out.

You can respond to this email, in the comments, or even via snail mail. I look forward to hearing your reflections.