Can You Imagine?

Imagination gets short shrift in this real world we live in. And what is reality but what people agree upon. If you look up the definition of real, one that comes up is ‘not imaginary.’ Evidently ‘imaginary’ is just in the mind and ‘real’ is something else.

But haven’t they established that all perception is processed in the mind? In other words we look at a mass of light waves and our brain tells us it’s a table.

I’m not saying real is a bad thing, necessarily. It can be handy and very workable to have some sort of agreement when working and living with others.

But, let’s face it. It begins to stretch out beyond objects ‘out there,’ to concepts that do entirely exist in someone else’s mind.

Things pass for reality that are never fact checked. They come from an authority such as the Internet or a paper or a talking head. They come from teachers and elders, parents and ancestors. They come from scientists who even know that, if you do research with a specific end in mind, you will find evidence to support it.

‘Imagination,’ however tends to be discouraged. It’s not ‘real.’

Little kids are discouraged from spending much time in imaginative endeavors by their parents who worry that they won’t ‘grow up’ and be able to cope with the hard realities of the world.

And so we take a look at our world and I’m afraid the hard question is; can you imagine anything different?

Because if we can’t, I’m afraid we’re stuck with what we have.

Maybe some people are fine with this but others might be disturbed by the idea of even one human being who is cold, homeless and hungry. Some people might not be satisfied with the idea that war is the only solution we seem to have to any problems.

So don’t look for any change to come about from our current reality. Change will only come about from being able to imagine anything different.