ABSTRACT
Many people who have reached adulthood put away childlike characteristics. In that decision, they have tucked away features of their human equipment that could make them uniquely creative. For the human instrument to operate with innovative effectiveness, certain qualities are needed. The ambitious, hard-driving, Type A personality is a metaphor for the kind of consciousness. The repetition, the caution, the following of patterns can become habitual, however. Then, when the situation calls for people to solve problems creatively, we can be stuck in a do-it-by-the-book mentality. Just as there is a time to be rational and another to be arational, there is a time to follow the rules and a time to move beyond the constraints with the use of imagination. The child as explorer is a more focused kin of playfulness. But the colors and substances in that kit had already been observed during the mother's beautifying exercises.
