Scanners

If you are anything like me, you’ll love it when you get a little bit of affirmation that you are not quite as abnormal as you feared. I think as writers we are already afraid that we are a little odd. So I breathed a large sigh of relief this week when I managed over several sessions to watch a very short (10 mins) Ted talk on multipotentiality, by careers consultant and author, Emily Wapnick.

A multipotentialite, or scanner, is someone who likes to learn lots of skills or who has lots of talents. I think we used to be called polymaths, though for me that has connotations of academia or being learned on various subjects, whereas the new terms are just as geared towards multiple  talents, gifts or interests. 

For most of my life I’ve been told “Jack of all trades, master of none!” and had things said to me, like “Oh, do you have to be good at that too?” as though it were a terrible sin to dare to try out several different things. Our society (and possibly our churches?) tend to operate on the idea that each person has one gift or calling in which they need to specialise, and that we need to spend our whole lives finding and then honing that one thing. We can cry “I’ve found my purpose!” and get on with it.

But some of us (probably more of us than we think) just aren’t wired like that. I write, yes, but I will write in pretty much every genre. I thought this was bad, like I wasn’t concentrating or focussing well. But it is good, because it is how I work. I like to have lots of projects on the go at once, and at the moment, that includes children’s books, a tv script, poetry, theology and novels.  I can’t help myself. I love variety and I love trying out new things. I think God does too. Else why the duck-billed platypus?

I am also an artist, and there again, whilst I do have a specialism in pastels, I will try most media. Why not? It’s fun and you get some wonderful results. The first couple of years (I only rediscovered this gift recently after prayer ministry) I kept thinking, oh, right, this is my thing. No wait, this style is my thing. No, hang on, I love watercolours too? What is going on? And it turns out, what is going on is that I’m a multipotentialite and not only is that okay, it’s rather thrilling and fun! And it is not so much “I can do all things,” but just that it’s fine to try.

If you think you might be one too, I encourage you to watch the talk, but also to try out some new things. I have always wanted to study psycho- neuro- and socio-linguistics. Maybe if God heals me, I’ll be trying that alongside my other work. Let’s not be afraid of having lots of passions. Let’s use them all to the full, and in all their richness. After all, suppose David hadn’t bothered to learn to use a slingshot or play the lute, because he was already a master shepherd?

Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_calling?language=en

Keren Dibbens-Wyatt is a disabled writer and artist with a passion for poetry, mysticism, story and colour. Her writing features regularly on spiritual blogs and in literary journals. Her full-length publications include Garden of God’s Heart and Whale Song: Choosing Life with Jonah. She lives in South East England and is mainly housebound by her illness.