The movie started with a very meaningful opening sentence, which goes something like this:
Do not fear, do not give up. Just be yourself, because life’s too short to be anybody else.
That was the recurring theme of the movie – to be yourself.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the difference between an imitator and a creator. An imitator is one who pretends to be someone else, who follows very closely to the mannerism of another person. A creator is one who makes something out of nothing, who produces something new, something authentic and different.
God is THE creator. He made all things, including you and me. But you and me were created in His image. Thus, if we are imitations of God (who has the ability to create), does that mean that we too are creators?
I believe that since we were created in the image of He who is the creator, we too have been given the ability to create. However, what we create is inspired by God. Therefore, not everyone can create, but only he who is gifted.
I confess that many a times I am an imitator. Even when I do my assignment, I read many articles and draw my ideas from the works of others. Sometimes I compile and organize other people’s works and call it my own. I study how other people do it, and follow suit. But isn’t this part of learning? To learn from the experiences of others? Doesn’t all creation result from trial and error and learning from other? What do you think?
Hi Steph, I just wanted to contribute this comment since you had posed the questions.
I believe there is rarely such a thing as original creation, at least among human beings. What i mean is that all “new” things/concepts/structures etc are really built on someone else’s creation which in turn was built on someone else so on and so forth. There is this saying that we are merely building on the shoulders of giants. Even in the area of intellectual property law (which is supposed to be my bread and butter), the law recognizes a person’s IP rights where he had put in some new work to an old idea/thing/concept.
let me know what you think