The Cubicle…The Prison Where Creativity Goes to Die

By Kevin Nixon

Today, the word cubicle, for many, is a symbol of stifled creativity. Many people feel closed in, psychologically and literally, by the cubicle. For many others, the cubicle is a micro representation of the job itself. Instead of referring to the job directly as a place they don't want to be, they are now voicing their dread at having to spend 9 to 5 in the cubicle.

I must say that lately I have been thinking about escaping from the cubicle. Well, not only thinking about it but making actual plans to escape. Maybe, I shouldn't say escape; for that implies that I am being held against my will and that should I escape, I would be hunted down and dragged backed to finish out my sentence, with a few "attempt to escape" years tacked on for good measure.

Of course, no one forced me to become a cubicle inmate and I doubt that any real roadblocks would be thrown up to prevent me from living the life I desire. However, there is any underlining covertness to how we become and remain cubicle inmates.

We who are inmates of the cubicle are made to feel that we cannot make it on the outside. We are programmed, early on, to accept that we have no skills or talents that will allow us to prosper on the outside. We are told that yes, you know how to make license plates (metaphorically speaking), but that is about all you are equipped to do. And if while in the process of making license plates we should desire to put a fancy picture on the license plate, we cannot do so without express authority from the overseer of license plate making. It essence, your creativity is allowed out only if it is of benefit to someone else.

And, we have accepted these covert ideas. We have allowed ourselves to become institutionalized. We are in affect, career cubiclelers (I just invented a new word!).

Oftentimes we shackle ourselves to the cubicle by creating unnecessary obligations, obligations that we feel requires us to tether ourselves to the cubicle where in exchange for being tethered for a specified period of time, churning out license plates, we are given money to fulfill our obligations. These are known as the debt obligations. Included in this list are the expensive car I can't afford debt, the overly priced home mortgage debt, the clothes I really didn't need credit card debt, the phone with a camera, apps and useless laser beam debt, and the I need to buy my children whatever that ask for debt.

Despite the covert operations of the overseers, in the end it is really our own choice to go to and stay in the cubicle, to remain in such a small world where the expression of your creativity depends on the keeper of the keys occasionally unlocking your cell.

Even So:

Not everyone who starts out in the cubicle will remain. There will be those who will be digging tunnels while everyone else is asleep, and poof, just like that, one day they will be gone, with no fanfare or long goodbyes. They will simply and quietly walk out of the cubicle into the waiting arms of creation. •

© 2011 Kevin Nixon. All rights reserved.

Kevin Nixon is an author, speaker, and healer, specializing in the ancient healing modality know as Reiki. Kevin currently conducts creativity workshops and healing sessions in the Metro Atlanta area. More »

7/29/11