Children's nursery rhymes have fantastic origins and were actually created to deliver lessons to children and the lesser-educated population. For instance, "Ring Around The Rosey" continues to the next phrase with "pocket full of posey", or herbs and flowers, which was a method used to try to keep germs away during the plague in London in the mid-1600s. Another English story created "Humpty Dumpty", who was likely an allusion to England's King Richard III (a rather portly and humpbacked fellow) when he was defeated in battle even though there were many soldiers around that should have won the fight, and the English learned they had a new leader.
Creative ways to deliver a message - even with death, the posey tries to put a positive light on things can be done in the fight of "good versus evil" - gives encouragement and provides a ladder for building energy for more creative solutions.
In more recent times, the media prefers to sensationalize everything, and many times the good news is lost or buried or never even investigated. Media loves a good train wreck, and the public falls for it every time. No demands for strong writing, investigations, or "homework" pieces. Bah, humbug!
But if you look, you can find success stories - even ones that were built in response to one brick wall and seemingly continued to hit brick walls. Another childhood activity, a game rather than a story, encourages children to be creative. "Let's go on a bear hunt" reaches multiple states of "Can't go over it... can't go under it... can't go around it..." and has teamwork to "let's go through it!" The power of creativity, teamwork and the promise of a brighter tomorrow should enlighten and empower even the toughest of Scrooges.
I know this story below was published a few months ago, but as all of the "stats" are coming out now with the Fed meetings, campaigning, as well as it being federal budget time, we cannot forget the great lessons of our past (even our recent past). People are mud slinging and pointing fingers to remind of all the failures. Taking something that was coined "a spectacular failure" and using common sense, expertise and creativity to turn around a hot-mess-train-wreck is a staggering accomplishment that should be celebrated (regardless of your opinion on why the project was necessary, this was a great fix-it job!)
When all the king's horses and all the king's men not only can't fix a problem but fail to admit they made the problem worse, take your creative confidence and know that you can achieve whatever you decide you want to do. Focus on what you can do rather than what you can't do, and you'll surprise yourself at how much you get done. Make sure you spread good news, too, so that success can be shared.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-secret-startup-saved-healthcare-gov-the-worst-website-in-america/397784/
