"I'm not creative"

I was teaching a pottery class to two friends (I will call them, Alice and Ted) the other day. They were finishing up a vase and bowl they had made. I offered a challenge to Ted - make something using the scraps of clay from your vase. Alice and I grabbed a lump of clay and joined in the fun.

"Let's make a Tesla!" So I started to mold a car that really looked more like a sneaker.

Then someone said "What about a top hat?" So we started to make top hats. Our tops hats turned into a sun hat and some other Detective cowboy hat thing.

Ted rolled the scraps into a big messy ball - full of cracks and scrap bits balled together. He continued to play with it and flatten it out. "I don't know what to make!"

"I can't make a hat."

"Yours is so good - show-off!"

"Mine looks more like a sunhat."

"My hat looks like a mess."

"No, it looks like a sombrero. La cucaracha, la cucaracha, da da da da da da da ...." (Lots of laughter)"

"I love your hat..."

"I love my hat! I love my sunhat! I can put it on the shelf and people will ask 'what's the story with this hat?!?'"

"Mine looks like .... something :)"

"My sombrero now looks like a shell .... like a turtle shell"

"Yeah! Make a turtle, Ted!"

"I love my hat! This is fun! I can put something under it. "

"My turtle needs feet...and..."

"Alice, your hat looks great on you!"

"Hey, Ted, your turtle looks great! I love his head and tail!"

"It looks like your turtle had a run-in with a truck."

"Yeah! One day, he was trying to get to the other side of the road and...."

And so the stories continued to fly.... There we were, like kids, playing , imagining and having fun! No need to MAKE anyTHING. We just enjoyied the freedom to have fun and went where the imagination took us! So after we finished our hats and turtle and the stories that went along with them, Ted said, "I'm not creative".

The turtle and I disagree.