Who are you and why are you doing this?

My name is Dale Lyles.  I am a retired educator who has spent his life Making The Thing That Is Not: creating.  I have been the artistic director of a theatre company, a choir director, a website designer, a composer, a painter, a writer, an actor, a dancer, and above all, a teacher.

This website is to promote what I have found to be effective ways to allow yourself to be the creative human that you want to be.  I've written a book — Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy — which is an incredibly handy source of inspiration.  You should buy it. (There’s also a A Young Person’s Guide to Lichtenbergianism!)

NOW

September 2025: still learning the new music program; Ten Little Waltzes; The Beethoven Blueprint (Hire me.)

Next: an exciting new project I’ve been asked to participate in

Reading: Tristram Shandy, by Lawrence Sterne; biographies of Beethoven

Watching: Abbot Elementary, Chief of War

Listening: random stuff