The imagination has been so debased that imagination -- being imaginative -- rather than being the linchpin of our existence now stands as a synonym for something outside oursleves like science fiction or some new use for tangerine slices on raw pork chops -- what an imaginative summer recipe -- and Star Wars! So imaginative and Star Trek -- so imaginative! And Lord of the Rings -- all those dwarfs -- so imaginative --
The imagination has moved out of the realm of being our link, our most personal link, with our inner lives and the world outside that world -- this world we share. What is schizophrenia but a horrifying state where what's in here doesn't match up with what's out there?
Why has imagination become a synonym for style?
I believe that the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world.
I believe the imagination is another phrase for what is most uniquely us.
Jung says the the greatest sin is to be unconscious.
Our boy Holden says "what scares me most is the other guy's face -- it wouldn't be so bad if you could both be blindfolded" -- most of the time the faces we face our not the other guys' but our own faces. And it's the worst kind of yellowness to be so scared of yourself you put blindfolds on rather than deal with yourself.
To face ourselves.
That's the hard thing.
The imagination.
That's God's gift to make the act of self-examination bearable.
quote from one of my all-time-favorite's Six Degrees of Separation.
image from fffound (i'm gonna look back to find the artist's name)