It has been a challenging few weeks for me. But the way creativity operates, it seems, is in finding solutions to problems. Whether it’s an idea for a poem, or a novel, or a painting, or a sculpture, a writer or artist is presenting themselves with a problem which they then have to figure out how best to solve. Art doesn’t merely offer an escapist fantasy: it allows its practitioners training to function more imaginatively, and thus more effectively, in the way they conduct themselves in the world. This is something for legislators and school boards to remember as they continue to eliminate art programs in school in favor of focusing on STEM classes.