zeal: Eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something.


Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
R.W. Emerson (1802-1882)


Gulliver cannot be denied the ever present zeal to want to know more about the people and countries he visits, completely unprepared. In that manner he is able to take up a different perspective and position toward others and learn by questioning. Basically all Gulliver's voyages reflect on people's behaviour.
Since creativity implies the disorderly pursuit of order, zeal is a fundamental trait of the creative person. More often than not the environment will not be enthusiastic or even actively discourage 'aberrant' or 'eccentric' behaviour, for the opposite of creativity is conformity, which may also be practiced with much zeal. It is taught in schools and most parents prefer the conforming child. And though business and industry and science claim to want creative individuals, the very methods of selection tend to keep these out.
Especially education works hard to make young people conform by offering studies and tests to which the answers are predetermined. This favours the convergent type of thinker and thus creative persons are kept out.
So once you have set out on the adventurous road of creative thinking a lot of zeal and ingenuity is required to ways of 'beating the system'. Many people seem to be more interested in that we are on time, instead of why we are not on time.
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