Ian McEwan wrote, after 9/11, that one of the crimes of the terrorists was a failure of imagination
If the hijackers had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the passengers, they would have been unable to proceed. It is hard to be cruel once you permit yourself to enter the mind of your victim. Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.
This touched me deeply when I read it. I think this is the key way I use imagination on a daily basis. I don’t know any other way to understand what patients tell me other than by trying to imagine what it is they are experiencing. I don’t think all of empathy or compassion can be explained as the use of the imagination (mirror neurones, being present, being non-judgemental are all other elements) BUT I do think it’s an essential element. Imagination is my everyday working tool.
We imagine in order to create our world of course. If we imagine that the universe is a cold, hostile place, where it’s every man for himself and dog eat dog, then we will have a particular experience of life….we will create for ourselves a particular kind of world. If we imagine that in the universe we are all connected, and that there is a purpose to existence, then we’ll create quite a different kind of world for ourselves.
To imagine is to create.
Watch any little children playing. My youngest grand-daughter looks at a cardboard box and sees a palace, or a jungle, or……….
….an ambulance!
When was the last time you sat down with some blank paper, some crayons, paints, glue and coloured papers, and just let your imagination flow?
What might you imagine this week?
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