Online Extra from Nov/Dec 2006 “Inspiration inquest”

HISTORY’S GREAT MOMENTS OF INSPIRATION

The following passages describe moments of inspiration that forever changed the lives of these historical figures.

A poster announcing performances at the Los Angeles Opera House by an exotic dancer named Ruth St. Denis that caught the attention of 17-year-old Martha Graham. Graham was struck by the richly costumed dancer, bejeweled in glistening bracelets, sitting on a throne-like platform. After convincing her father to escort her to this performance, Graham’s fate was sealed. From that moment on, she recalled, she couldn’t wait to learn to dance.

While travelling in South Africa by train, a fellow passenger complained he did not want to spend the night in the same space as the dark-skinned Mahatma Gandhi. After refusing to move to a third-class compartment, Gandhi was removed from the train and forced to spend the night freezing in a railway station. Gandhi credits that night as the spark that triggered his politically motivated life.

Like many gifted youth, Picasso’s talent surpassed that of his instructors. He learned far more in the galleries, streets and bordellos of Madrid than in his classes at its Academy of Fine Arts. Bored, the 17-year-old moved back to Barcelona where his talent was shaped through his fascination with human form and emotion. Mesmerized by the appearance of a stripper, he would return to his room and spend all night trying to capture her moods and stances.

One childhood event made a particularly strong impression on Albert Einstein. Around the age of four or five, his father showed him a compass. The young Einstein was fascinated by the persistence of the needle, which refused to move even when its case was rotated. His inquisitive mind had begun to emerge and this incident was one of the first to stimulate what would eventually become an insatiable curiousity.

Headed for a career in law, Sigmund Freud’s path in life changed direction after he heard a reading of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s essay “On Nature.” Depicting nature as a nurturing mother figure, the article was the catalyst that led Freud to study of medicine and become a natural scientist.

*Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham and Gandhi by Howard Gardner

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