‘Stories’ yields provocative televiewing gems

Solar TV’S “Stories” program slot in the evening sometimes offers uniquely interesting documentaries that make our viewing day.

Recent gems include a documentary on how and why some people are more creative than others, and a comparative study of pleasure and pain.

The feature on the wellsprings of creativity offered up some key factors that make great artists and inventors’ output truly exceptional. They include the ability to arrive at unique insights, a penchant for “divergent” thinking, and a knack for improvisation. Put these together, and you get the “neuro-portrait” of a sensibility that doesn’t follow the rules of logic and standard ways of doing things and solving problems.

Genuine creativity

This calls to question some traditional ways in which millions of people are “educated.” They build on what generations before them have discovered and developed—so in terms of genuine creativity, it is often counterproductive.

—Which may explain why the traditional educational matrix bores some students and prompts them to drop out, so they can find their own pace and tempo, and do their uniquely creative “thing.”

They go for the unexpected, even the disruptive, and aim to effect new associations between “old” concepts. They think flexibly and approach problems differently, so their solutions are similarly unexpected.

Studies have shown that people who change or vary their routine activities eventually register changes in the structure of their brains, as well! And, when they intentionally reduce their minds’ “regulatory” functions, it’s as if they open up neurological “gates” that prevent them from being truly creative. They learn how to lose their inhibitions and to improvise, to react to the moment’s emotional impulse rather than safely following a pattern.

It’s risky, but “creative courage” is called for to push back our mental and human boundaries—so, youths who demonstrate the potential to go down this road less traveled should be helped and supported to achieve their “risky” objective!

Eye-opener

Similarly, the documentary on the roots of pain and pleasure was an eye-opener that shed a lot of welcome light on these heretofore mysterious and murky aspects of the human psyche and experience.

The documentary’s host was unique in his willingness to also serve as the “guinea pig” for some of the experiments that scientists engage in to prove their sometimes controversial contentions.

He joined a competition for people who loved to eat hot peppers—and had his body hair painfully torn off by way of a depilatory process that soon reduced him to tears and had him pleading for mercy!

As for the “pleasure” part of the equation, he interviewed all sorts of people and found out that their most pleasurable experience had something to do with sex (no surprise there).

But, less predictably, the pleasure principle sometimes turned out to involve the consequences of sex, as in pregnancy—and babies!

—New parents fervently declared that the “instant” love they felt for their newly born children was another major turn-on!

Other promising documentaries showing soon on Solar TV’s “Stories” program slot include some features on the “intelligence” of pets on Sept. 24 and 27. —We’ll be watching!