Imagination

In my post titled "Not Rushing Beauty" I addressed one thing that could be done while alone, appreciating beauty in unconventional things. I would now like to address something else that, in my opinion, is best in solitude: the use of one's imagination. Just thinking, day dreaming if you will. Not about problems, but about life. About extremely rare situations that will never happen to you, but if it does you will know how to react; about stories. But not normal stories. No one would bother reading them if they were on paper. There is no plot twists, and nary a plot at all. There isn't an eloquent manner to this narrative, and there wouldn't be many interesting characters. Aside from yourself (and maybe a bad guy or two). Oh sure it would be exciting, almost entirely action except for possibly a witty piece of dialogue or two. But, it keeps one entertained. I can spend hours upon hours just thinking. There are so many things to think about, and yet we are obsessed with entertainment. I am as guilty of this as anyone, but still, what happened to meditating on your own thoughts? Not rushing, but simply being content with who you are?

"I'm bored" or "Are we there yet?" are common sayings of little children (and even some big children). It is because we have all have been raised with the idea that we have to be doing something. And if we aren't doing anything then the few minutes that we wait for that entertainment is pure torture. Take books. Often thought of as jumping stones for our imagination, and rightly so. We can try to make the story real in our heads, or maybe go into the story, and become a part of it, interacting with the characters all within our imagination. This is a wonderful process. Yet how many times do we read a book, and then simply move on to the next activity before even thinking about what we learned?