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Quoting "Great Minds"

Who Decides Who's Quoteworthy?

By Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com

(« Con't)

I’ll illustrate: Say you are in your favorite bookstore hunting for the latest copy of a New York Best Seller when it suddenly appears on a shelf right in front of you. Actually, imagine two copies of the same book materializing, but with one slight difference between them on the front-cover dust jacket. The first book boasts this testimonial quote:

“A totally must-read
for ALL modern working women!”
— Chris Dunmire, One Cool Modern Working Woman

And the second book displays the same quote, but by a popular TV talk-show host:

“A totally must-read
for ALL modern working women!”
— Oprah, the Big “O” of Everything

Which book are YOU going to buy? C’mon, tell the truth. Especially if you’ve never even heard of Chris Dunmire!

Okay, I think I’ve made my point. And now the question begs, WHO gets to decide if a mind is great or quoteworthy? I'll tell you. I do. And so do you. Why shouldn't we? Great, quoteworthy minds are engaged all around us every minute of the day. We'll just unsection-off that area the previous group known as the select few populated and open it up for all of us right now. And along with that, I’m going to make as many un-famous, creative, down-to-earth people that I know quoteworthy in my sphere of influence. In fact, it's a practice I've already been employing as the publisher of the Creativity Portal Web site. Don’t believe me? How’s this for a quote by an unknown Great Mind:

"Allowing yourself to pursue your creative passions,
no matter how deeply buried, is freedom."
— Kristi Kovalishyn, Artist, Writer, Photographer

Or this:

"When we commit the details
of our lives to the page,
we do so in a hope
that these stories and lies
may outlive our bodies."
— Molly Anderson-Childers, Artist, Writer, Educator

Kristi and Molly are both artists and freelance writers. These quotes are taken directly from the articles they’ve contributed to the Creativity Portal Web site. Profound, aren’t they? So profound that I’ve made them quoteworthy in the annual 2007 calendar I produced this year for the thousands of daily visitors to the site.

Here’s a couple more:

"Creative time is just as important as food
when it comes to recharging.
While food recharges our bodies,
creative time recharges our soul."
— Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

"We have to learn to think of failure
as 'just-not-yet.' There's no such thing as failure,
as long as you get back up and keep going."
— Angie Dixon, Author of The Leonardo Trait

You’ve never heard of Margaret or Angie, but what they have to say sounds quoteworthy to me. Move over, Emily, you’ve got company.

Indeed, that big green treasure book I found for three dollars was a huge source of wisdom for me. It made me realize that famous-people quote-books are not the only place Great Minds can be found. Great Minds can be found everywhere among ordinary people like you and me. Perhaps we’ll never be quoted in a book, or be recognized for our everyday genius by market-driven authors and publishers, but we can celebrate the fact that we have an unlimited capacity to inspire the people we touch everyday in the small circles of our lives by sharing our stories, our experiences, and our own lessons learned.

Are you hungry for more wisdom from ordinary people? Here’s one for the road by another artist I know named Lynda Lehmann:

"The truth wears six billion faces,
each with different life circumstances,
a different life script,
and a different mode of emotional being."
— Lynda Lehmann, Artist and Writer

Next time you read a quote by a famous, rich, or seemingly brilliant person, I hope you remember that YOU too, my friend, are also brilliantly creative AND quoteworthy. •

© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. (01/25/07). Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

About the Author
Chris Dunmire is a thriving humorist, creativity enthusiast, kid's artshop facilitator, and creative director and publisher of the popular "Writer's Digest Best" Creativity-Portal.com. Chris trained as a creativity coach with Eric Maisel, Ph.D., and is the innovative mind behind the famous 'Cashius monetarius' Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant project. Learn more about Chris's creative printable playbooks at CreativeSlush.com.