Have you ever thought where we would be if we didn’t
have an imagination?
We’d be lost and hungry, for a start.
Let me explain.
Imagination is the ability to form new
images and sensations in the mind that are not perceived through senses such as
sight, hearing, or other senses. It is a mental process, which is not visible
to others. Imagination
makes use of relevant knowledge and previous learning to solve problems
This is
why I say that without an imagination we would all be lost and hungry. Without
an imagination, nobody would be able to translate an abstract concept like a
road map into the reality of the roads. The same applies to recipes.
Imagination is what enables a person to turn a bunch of words into a wonderful
dish.
In the
business world, trainers emphasize ‘thinking outside the box’ and ‘lateral
thinking’ in problem solving. What do they mean by that? Simply put, they might
as well have told their trainees to ‘use your imagination’.
In
today’s world, we want to be visually entertained. We watch movies, TV series,
we play computer games etc. These are the products of somebody else’s
imagination. Our own mind’s eye becomes lazy to the point of not being able to
‘see’ without ‘seeing’. We forget how to think in the abstract. We rely on
imagination borrowed from somebody else.
Everybody
doesn’t have to be a visual artist or an author, but our imagination is what
separates us from the animal kingdom. No invention would have been possible
with the imagination of the inventor. Every painting and sculpture started with
an idea in the imagination of the artist. Bridges, skyscrapers buildings, airplanes,
trains and spaceships, the common light bulb, the telephone, television sets,
you name it, they all started as an idea formed in somebody’s head by his/her
imagination.
If the
imagination becomes the privilege of the few the human race will be left so
much poorer. Each person should strive to develop all the faculties available
to him or her. Imagination incorporates learning, previous experiences and
personality to come up with solutions in a new and original forms.
With a
blunted imagination, this process becomes limited to the point of being
useless.
One way
to develop one’s inner eye is by reading. By reading a book as opposed to
watching a movie based on that book, one creates mental images for oneself from
the abstract words the author used to tell the story. One enters the world the
author created by visualizing it. But when we watch what another person have
created, our own imagination shrivels with disuse.
Read a
book!
Maggie
Tideswell is the author of passionate paranormal romance novels. She lived in
Johannesburg, South Africa with her husband Gareth and their three cats. She has two books published, Dark Moon (2011)
and Moragh, Holly’s Ghost (2013) and has just launched her new five book series
Bridesmaids, Weddings & Honeymoons. Book 1, The Run-Away Couple, is
available on Amazon. Book 2, He’s Married will be released next month.
