Creative Genius of America
Remembering Thomas Jefferson

The creative process is the fundamental key to all innovation in every field of endeavor. We humans yearn for the quality of experience that hurls us into the unbounded world of imagination, beyond the curtains of time. The act of creating gives form to the inner life, brings spirit into matter. It shapes order from chaos. So intoxicating are its payoffs that we place it on a pedestal. We glorify, even deify it. We forget that fear, resistance, anxiety, pure labor and personal growth are significant parts of the creative process. We encounter thorny attitudes and behaviors in ourselves, and plenty of obstacles. These choppy waters will unsettle our existing shore. But no matter how turbulent, there is one choice we will always govern: whether to calm the storms, or be crushed by them. Creativity demands courage, and endurance pays well in the end. In his poem "Last Night," the Spanish poet Antonio Machado suggests that spring will again break out in the heart, and golden bees will make sweet honey from old failures and loss.

The 4th of July seemed particularly resonant this year, as we celebrated the creative accomplishments of our founding fathers and mothers, to whom Americans owe so much. Never before had a small band of oppressed people broken the shackles of so vast an empire as Great Britain to give birth to their own, new country. Their circle was a rare confluence of learnedness, wisdom and courage. They crossed long thresholds of discomfort in order to actualize what was calling to be created, and against long odds. Thomas Jefferson’s life provides a particularly poignant example of the creative process as struggle and victory.

During one vital decade of helping to found and lead the fragile new nation, tragic events befell Jefferson. He was married to the widowed Martha Wayles Skelton in 1772, and was deeply in love. Soon thereafter, he endured the early deaths of his father-in-law, his closest childhood friend, and his mother, who died unexpectedly at the age of fifty-seven. The couple’s first daughter was born the same year, but Martha’s son from her first marriage was stricken by illness and died. The Jefferson’s second daughter died when two-years-old. Later, death stole two more of their infants. The pregnancies and losses comprimised Martha’s health, and after her last birth in 1882, she herself died. Two years after Martha's demise, the youngest child passed away, leaving just two of their offspring remaining.

Despite his agonizing losses, Jefferson's creative process emerged to deliver gifts of awesome magnitude. As a member of the Continental Congress, he was invited to author The Declaration of Independence, after which he became governor of Virginia. He was minister to France and Secretary of State under George Washington, Vice President under John Adams, and was later elected third President of The United States. Jefferson was opposed to all forms of absolutism and was distrustful of power, lest it be seized for its own sake. He sought to use the instruments of government in the public interest over the interests of the privileged, earning him wide popular support as president. He was a devoted family man, and led a rich creative life as an architect, scientist, linguist, patron of the arts, and father of the University of Virginia. During his term as governor, he drafted the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which led to our First Amendment and one of America’s greatest gifts to democracy, the separation of church and state. Jefferson’s contribution was vital in creating a nation that was truly pluralistic in religious terms.

He battled to protect religious freedom from hostile political maneuvering. He fought not only intolerance of, but also legal ascendancy of, any one religion or sect. Government, in his view, should be prevented from meddling in the affairs of religion, and vice versa. He considered those clergy who intruded in the machinery of government to be “a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.” He believed human conscience is held accountable to none other than its Creator.

Jefferson’s devotion to these principles earned him the wrath of Congregationalists in the areas of New England where the clergy and magistrates were well established. Though he was privately a man of deep faith, the Congregationalists denounced him in their pulpits as atheist. But Jefferson was deeply aware of the despotic abuses that racked Europe for centuries, drenching it in blood and misery. In a letter to the physician and social reformer, Benjamin Rush, he wrote, "The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion."

Jefferson’s profound gift to democracy in 1800 serves as a guiding light for today. It begs our alertness to all forces of oppression that, however motivated--by power, fear, or even the best intentions--will violate that sacred separation of church and state. Fundamentalists in the world fear this separation, blaming it for the problems of immorality and injustice. Extremists see it as a threat to be eliminated. Jefferson, in his wisdom, argued that religion had nothing to fear from “liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind." He trusted the tenets of religion to emerge and prevail from within a liberated human consciousness. Religious truths would stand trial, not in the courts of law, but in the unfettered courts of experience and reason. Morality's true legislation he insisted, would take place only within hearts and minds.

Despited Jefferson's many talents, he was under serious threat of indebtedness his whole life. He faced not only personal, but political battles, some compromising his reputation painfully. During his service as Vice President, he backed an unscrupulous journalist who defamed the character of President Adams; a reaction motivated by his opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts. As a result of this betrayal, Adams, once his friend, became his bitter enemy. Jefferson recognized the injustice of slavery, but owned slaves and remained tied to its system. The Kentucky resolution of 1798, which he authored, carried states-rights doctrines to an extreme, his name becoming associated with the South’s emerging secession movement. His mistakes took their toll.

In retirement, Jefferson settled into his beloved Virginia home, Monticello, and devoted himself to his vast array of interests. His failures tended to recede and fade. Tensions thawed in his relationship with John Adams, and the two men began a letter writing campaign that lasted for fifteen years. Their correspondence touched on myriad topics, from recollections about their contributions to the young nation's history, to views on current politics, to matters of the spirit, to issues of aging. Humor and affection infuse these writings, despite the two men's differing political philosophies. Thomas Jefferson died on the 4th of July, 1826, only hours before John Adams. Their day of death was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Before John Adams slipped away, he uttered the words, “Thomas Jefferson survives.”

And “survives,” he does. Surely the paths of decency would be far less illuminated had this great yet flawed human given in to discouragement and despair. The creative process demands we pass through thresholds of discomfort. But it's somehow comforting to know that, far from untouched by the anxieties we average humans share, this beacon of light knew intimately the rough terrain of spring and the workings of golden bees. Thomas Jefferson’s life is a testament to the best of the creative process and the best of America, which has far less to do with the elimination of challenges than the personal growth inherent in them. His legacy is a gift, reminding us to defend and further our cherished visions no matter how we feel at the moment.

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