Jerry’s become fond of calling it “The Baguette Phenomenon.” Or at least, he should, because then it sounds like the plot to a wacky Star Trek episode.
Jerry relates that at workshops all over the country, all over the country even, kids will spontaneously shout out A BAGUETTE at our workshops. Sometimes they’ll throw it in when we draw Spongebob or some other cartoon character and ask the kids to make it as wacky as possible. Sometimes it will feature in comics. Invariably, when someone does bring up the baguette the other kids respond, seeming to enjoy saying the word almost as much as the idea of the baguette itself.
We’ve been fascinated, and baffled, by The Baguette Phenomenon. Why is it, at libraries hours apart, kids will fixate on the same variety of French bread? So far as we know it doesn’t feature prominently in any specific show or YouTube channel. It’s not as universal as pizza.
This may be an example of what the psychologist Carl Jung called “synchronicity.” But it’s also one example of a larger phenomenon–the Magic of Brainstorming.
Brainstorming, like most art forms, is probably an ancient mode of creativity that’s been given a new name and focus as we crazy human beings have played with and changed the artistic process over millennia. It really goes back to a question that people have been asking about themselves since we first learned to ask questions. Is a human being an individual, a self-contained unit of mind, body, and (possibly) soul? Or is a human being part of a humanity without which it is impossible to understand any one of us? The truth, of course, probably lives somewhere in between.
But I can tell you from experience, whether the Baguette Phenomenon or any one of a hundred funny brainstorming stories, that there is something magical that happens when people tune into their mutual creativity as a group. Laughter comes more easily. A mishmash of kids, who left their parents as single units of thought and anxiety, become one riotous ball of collective energy.
The group’s confidence increases too. Kids are more willing to let one idea or the other flit in and out, embracing the possibility of the latest idea even as they maintain their unique, personal idiosyncrasies. Whatever the rational explanation there might be for the Baguette Phenomenon (if there is one), it’s only one way that kids work together to bring each other joy, even as they expand their creativity. We are deeply privileged to watch it unfold, and help it along.
