Pablo Picasso said that every child is born an artist, the problem is how to remain one once we grow up. I think of the artist in each of us as a fragile, beautiful and precious light, a creative spark inside of every person. In the Kabbalah, God says he gave the creative spark to each and every human being, some feel it and some won’t or can’t.

I think when children first interact with the wider world, when they take their first class, the process begins of fear and  pressure: here’s what you don’t know, here’s what you better learn if you are going to work and survive and pay your bills in our world. There are very few parents I know or have met who worked to save that precious light within their child, very few teachers, very few brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles.

We are all born with awe and wonder, very little of it survives our first years, and if it survives at all, it is hidden away, it has no place in our modern world of money and anger and fear and motion. Sacred is the child who keeps his or her soul intact. But it does not ever die, I think, it is always there, hoping to come out.

What is creativity, after all, but the impulse to share our own view of what we see, think and feel? Those are not things we ever lose.  We are taught from the first day to feel dumb, thus to be dumb. Then we are told what we must need and must think. That will kill the artistic spirit as fast as a bullet.

A friend told me her son is restless and  constantly in motion, much like our border collie Fate. She told me proudly that she took her son to the doctor who put him on medication to calm and center him. I shuddered for him.

Last week, a famous dancer gave an interview on the radio. She said her mother took her to a doctor when she was very young because she was so restless. What is wrong with her, her mother asked the doctor?

After examining her and watching her, the doctor called in her mother and  said “there is nothing wrong with your daughter. She is a dancer.” We have so much more power than we think.

It would be an awful world if everyone was an artist or a writer, the world needs so many different things. But I’ve seen a lot of artists die or killed off in my life, that is a sad thing. It seems our world is preparing children to serve the corporate masters of the world, to learn the things they need to learn to worship in the new religion, to pay their bills and fit the changing needs of the business world.

I work in my own rebellious way, if any young person ever asks if he or she can be a writer, or an artist, or a poet or dancer, I say yes, of course. Make sure you don’t ever take a day job. If you do,  it will become your life. To be an artist is to take the plunge, take the oath.  You have to close your eyes and leap. There can be no going back.

In the recession, the first classes to be cut were the art classes. Art teachers were the first to lose their jobs. After all, how can art classes boost the economy or help the young to eat and find jobs in Amazon warehouses or Wall Street hedge funds? I can only imagine the message that sent the children – do not ever dare to be an artist. In the Great Depression, the government spent millions of dollars to keep artists alive and working, it was believed art was essential to the soul of a people.

That was a long time ago. Can you imagine the fight in Congress if anyone wanted to help keep art or artists alive now?

I think Picasso was right. Every one of us is born creative, is born an artist. The challenge is always how to remain one once we grow up.