The Waning of the Imagination
When I was very young, people used to comment that I had an "active imagination." In my childish mind, that meant that I played well. I made up scenarios for the pretending games that we played whenever two or more of us got together. I was often a leader in the pretend story lines and the others would follow whatever plot I came up with. Now I wonder if I was too aggressive, pushing my own ideas on the other kids, or, was I really more imaginative than they were and made these games of ours more exciting and varied. I suppose I would have to poll the other children I played with to know for sure. That ain't gonna happen.
As I gained age and responsibilities, I seemed to spend more brain power on studying, listening, reading and practicing certain artistic pursuits. Learning how to best get by in life and make decent decisions was more imperative than anything else. The moments in time when I let my creativity flow, so to speak, were rare but whenever I did that, it resulted in something magical - a poem, a short story, a song lyric, or a painting or drawing. But were these magical moments my imagination in play or something else?
I'm still not exactly sure that imagination is so related to fun and play; perhaps it is more akin to wishing, which is much more internal and personal than playtime with others. Wishing comes as one gains actual experience in this world; you can't wish for something you know nothing about, after all. Wishful thinking isn't the precursor to creating, is it? In fact, nowadays, when I think about being creative, I tend to liken that process to magical thinking. Knowing what I know now about the extra senses we possess, yet fail to cultivate, magic may be a simplification of a process popularly known as remote viewing.
Once called clairvoyance (from the French words for "seeing clearly"), the power became also known as ESP, mind-reading, tarot card reading, palm reading, etc. In the 20th Century, a group within more than one government on Earth declared that people could be trained to intuit unknown places, people or things with a prompt. This practice became known as Remote Viewing. The movie, Men Who Stare at Goats, was based on one such program that took place within the purview of the U. S. government. Having listened to and read the words of some of the people who participated in the program, I conclude (reserving the right to change my mind) that this is sensory process that, with practice, anyone can grasp and that, sometimes, certain people have a natural ability to utilize without much practice. In a great way, I intuit that the creative muse works similarly to that process, although having an entirely different goal and outcome.
If someone who has a natural talent in music is reading this, they may understand what I mean. This may be true for the artist (in the drawing and painting sense of the word), or the poet, or the lyricist, or the composer, or the sculptor. Having dabbled into all sorts of artistic pursuits myself, you do have those times when an idea comes to you out of the ether, and many artists have described it as such. The "ether" is the unknown or nowhere place that may be outside of ourselves but also may dwell within; we just don't really know where it is or what it is. But it is where an original idea often finds a path to a creative mind that is open and receptive to it. My position on imagination now, then, is that children, having more open, unencumbered minds, are more receptive to original ideas that flow in from somewhere, but that lacking the experience of what to do with these ideas, use them for play (not a bad thing at all, but not especially fruitful). Adults who have an open and receptive mindful center can still and again tap into this and use their experience to bring the creative force to full bloom.
Creative Juices Come Out of Squeezing the Fruits
Fruits are foods that are mostly eaten as nature provides them. We have the convenience of preservation, such as frozen fruit, dried fruit, canned fruit, which makes fruit available in nearly every season, no matter the climate or season. However, while children and young people do include fruits in their diets, it seems that literature points out that the elderly need fruit added more than ever in their lives - along with vegetables, especially green and red/orange vegetables, due to the gut of the older adult having a harder time absorbing essential nutrients from food. Fruits and vegetables are the best way to obtain these necessary vitamins and minerals that sustain our body systems.
I liken 'creative juices' with 'fruit squeezings' as an allegory. In this symbolism, creativity and fruit are the means to an end; the spirit and soul yearn to leave behind tangible remains as it begins the journey toward its inevitable end, while the body yearns for the energy it needs to make this journey with all the strength it can muster. And, so, there is creativity and fruits.
Armed with whatever medium our choice is and the fruit to sustain us, we must flow along with the current, enjoying the eddies and pools along the way. At times, we will meet with rougher waters, where the meander devolves into a frenzied paddling and our resolve is sometimes cruelly tested. Even when our strength wanes, our imagination can still function - as wishful thinking, as pretending (in a positive way), as making magic with our thoughts. If we are fortunate and tenacious, we can motor through the whitewater and use our latest challenges to fuel more creativity. Whatever your choice of fruit, test it often, change to another one if your strength and stamina drop, pick and choose. In this way, we can squeeze the good out of any fruit and as the slogan goes, make it "good to the last drop."
Nowhere knows this is everybody
Many of us believe there is an afterlife and many of us believe this is the only life we're given. None of us can be absolutely sure we have it right, whatever we believe. Do we go "somewhere" after death? Or do we go "nowhere"? People can spend their lives trying to answer that question and many have. So many philosophers, authors, novelists, theological essayists and more have opined on the topic that there exists more volumes written than any one person could consume in a lifetime. Everybody knows this.
Still, we can have an informed opinion and set our own belief on whatever our opinion has come to be. For what it's worth, my own current belief is that "nowhere" may be a reality of which we have no concept. In that sense, if I go "nowhere" after this life, I may actually go "somewhere." I once believed that I, or my essence, would be sent "somewhere" that was 'up' or 'down' and that equated to a 'good place' or a 'bad place.' A construct of the adolescent mind (PSY 201?) that was, ironically, a more concrete way of thinking than the magical thinking of the child. Presently, it seems to me to be a type of quantum thinking - of an alternate reality or universe - and I wonder if this is from the mind of an already-in-my-second-childhood elder?
In any case, what I have known as "me" is all I know and I've tried to make "me" as unique and interesting as I could. If "me" ceases to exist in its entirety upon leaving behind this shell of blood, skin and bones, so be it. I may be missed by a few, remembered by a few and never cross the minds of a great multitude, no matter how creative I've been. No matter how many pieces of art, poetry, music, and prose I've left in my wake, most of those are and will be ephemera that could be discovered for as long as a few decades or scores or so: the proverbial drop in the bucket. Be that as it may, a droplet in the river of time is still something. Any substance which flows inexorably is a wonder and a magnificent sight! Think of a glacier, an ocean current, a mass of air, a photon stream from the sun; or, less awesome perhaps, a watery stream that meanders into a river and then merges with a great sea and then goes where? Somewhere? Nowhere? Where it goes, whatever it is, it's amazing! Perhaps that's good enough for anyone. It may be all there is. To have been or to be a portion of it, I have to say, is good enough for me.
