About a dozen years or so ago, my youngest son, Lucas taught me a valuable lesson. Most parents can attest to the simple, yet astounding pieces of wisdom that is often given to us from our children. This particular eye-opener was given to me when Lucas was about four years old. It was something I had forgotten. Well, to be closer to the truth, it was something I never really considered to begin with.
Lucas and I were sitting, cross-legged and face-to-face in the living room. We were engaged in an epic action figure battle. Regardless of the fact that Superman and Spiderman are fellow superheroes, superfriends, if you will, they were duking it out for some reason or another.
I controlled superman and I barraged Luke’s Spiderman with x-ray vision. Spidey countered with a volley of webs, which I easily broke free from. Superman hurled the television remote and scored a hit! Superman hurled a pillow! Superman flew easily to and fro, pummeling his foe.
And just as I was certain that Spiderman was mere seconds from defeat, he suddenly regained his strength, floated into the air and began blasting fireballs! “Fireballs”, I said. “Spiderman doesn’t shoot fireballs!” Lucas laughed and informed me that not only does Spiderman shoot fireballs, but that the fireballs now were made entirely of Kryptonite! I cried foul, but Spidey kept blasting away.
I tried again, to explain to him what Spiderman’s powers consisted of (I was hoping to expose Spidey’s limitations and win the battle), but Lucas ignored me and continued his onslaught. He said something to me and with it, disarmed me and won the battle.
He asked, rhetorically, “Who’s playing this game, dad?” and instantly I realized that my imagination wasn’t quite what it used to be. I understood that my decades of experience and knowledge did not benefit me in this action-figure battle; it was what defeated me.
Internally, I vowed never to forget that moment and so far I haven’t. In fact, I revisit that more often than you might think because Luke’s simple and wise exclamation summarized to me the power of imagination. I realized then that my action figure had been hobbled and his power diminished because so had mine.
We have the tendency, as we grow older, to forget the importance our imaginations play in our lives. There are those that argue the whole of the human species owes everything to its imaginations. I don’t disagree. Was there ever an invention made that wasn’t first imagined?
Thinking, in its simplest form is really nothing more than imagining something. Perhaps it’s thinking toward the solution to a particular problem. It’s that mental grocery list we start putting together in our heads when we realize a trip to the store is soon needed. It’s even the images of the products we’re going to purchase or the aisle they reside in.
When we think of a trip in the car on a bright and warm day and anticipate the breeze and the trees, the sights and sounds, we are imagining, aren’t we? But we get so used to solving our problems, making our lists, planning our trips that we usually don’t see the process of what we’re doing. Fair enough.
Past experiences go a long way in shaping how we use our imaginations. So do schools, teachers, churches, the media, and so on. None of these entities are inherently bad and they do spark our imaginations, but more so, they tend to tell us “like it is,” and portions of our imagination get stifled. I don’t have to imagine that two plus two equals four if I already know the answer.
But “telling it like it is” is not inherently bad either because certain truths are truths and facts are facts and relying on past experiences to anticipate a similar outcome to a similar situation is usually good sense. What I am trying to say is that thinking the way we always think, while not bad, may be limiting.
Most of us have heard the hackneyed phrase “think positive!” and I would venture to guess most of us agree there can be benefit to doing just that. We can imagine ourselves being happy or thinner or kinder or whatever, but unless we follow up with some type action, it’s likely that we won’t end up where/how we thought we would or at least a little closer. The phrase “Follow Your Dreams” also comes to mind.
This past weekend I imagined a beautiful car ride with my wife to meet her friend. The day was bright and warm. The anticipated breeze and the trees, the sights and sounds were all there. The ride was EXACTLY as I had imagined it would be. It was wonderful. All we had to do was get in the car, the rest unfolded.
So, imagining that you are (and will continue to become) who and how you want to be and giving it a try may be easier than you think. This applies to everything we do. I think it has everything to do with who and how you are already.
In my case, the case of the epic superhero battle, I learned that my imagination was constipated by the things that I already knew about Spiderman and Superman. My character’s power was already defined and therefore limited.
But then my son asked, “Who’s playing this game, dad?”
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