Imagination, a dying art

"Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists, very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination."

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, better known as G.K. Chesterton, an English writer, lay theologian, poet, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist.

A closed mind is a dying mind. A closed mind not only filters out and blocks off new or different ideas, information, and beliefs; but also is an unreachable and unteachable mind. A closed mind is a hostile, prejudiced, and indifferent mind, and therefore keeps new or different ideas from gaining a foothold; whereas, an open mind is able to intelligently evaluate other people's beliefs, and ideas. An open mind can learn and grow. Closed minds stand in the way of learning and change. In fact, a person with a closed mind lacks imagination because imagination is a very precise thing: it is not fantasy, and one needs the alertness of an intelligent and open mind to imagine.

The man who invented the wheel did so while observing another man walking; and that is imagination. To imagine is to see what the eyes cannot see; to hear what the ears cannot hear; to feel what the heart cannot feel. In fact, it was Albert Einstein, the German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, but better known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 which revolutionised modern science, who said that, "imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Thus, as much as myth is more potent than history, dreams more powerful than facts, love stronger than death; imagination is stronger than knowledge and therefore, hope that is built on the foundation of imagination, will always triumph over experience.

Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability to form new images and sensations that we do not perceive through senses such as sight hearing, or other senses.

Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience and the learning process.

Imagination

However, I am saddened to note that the children of today are, taught everything but the art of imagination. In fact, the children are so busy from morning to night, everyday of the week, with school, homework, tuition classes, swimming classes, ballet classes, music lessons, sports meet, and what not; they lack the time to play imaginatively as nature intended. Thus, they grow up totally devoid of imagination.

I have no doubt that their parents intentions are well intended and that they wish to give their children the widest possible exposure to the living experience in life. However, do all these activities make them progressive citizens, worthier humans, and most of all, humane? I wonder. Perhaps, parents think that by keeping children busy, they will not be bored and get into trouble. I think such parents imagine that they have to communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and hence do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every living moment. The quality of the imagination is to make it flow, and not to freeze. Our system of education does not help imagination grow. When imagination is frigid, it parts company with understanding.

Fools are deficient in imagination, and I am sure no parent will want their children to turn out to be that.

When we were growing up, we had no tuition classes. Yet, we learnt Latin and Sanskrit; History and Geography; Drama and Music; Art and Woodwork; Planting and Farming.

In fact, Royal Collage at that time had its own farm at Narahenpita, and we hostellers had to go there every Saturday morning to learn farming, except when cricket matches were on. All our studies were,

done at school. We had plenty of time to let our imagination run riot, and our masters and wardens were at the receiving end of our wild ways to which our imagination took us.

When we got board, our imaginations took over. We built forts on the beach, fought the bad guys with imaginative weapons, were the hero's of our own lives. We made up stories in our heads; we sang songs that we made up as we went along. We invented games, toys, and all kinds of new mousetraps.

We read a book for the pure joy of reading and then imagining our own versions of it, and escaping to magical islands; we climbed trees and discovered darkest Africa.

We were Saradial, Ravana, Robin Hood, Red Riding Hood, Bonnie and Clyde, Tarzan, and anyone else our imagination took us to be.

Woman

Our sisters and neighbourhood girls were wonder woman, cat woman, sometimes even the bionic woman. We were doctors and our sisters were nurses to our dolls and pets, perhaps to the extent of being cruel to the pets for want of understanding; and the pets took all hazards with a sense enlightened tolerance. We sat in empty boxes and took long drives across the country when we got board of driving, our boxes would turn into an air-plane, and we would glide over the cities and through clouds.

We were, trapped on a treasure island with four men who did not have a clue. We were mummies and daddies playing house. We were astronauts.

We were fire-fighters, and police officers, we were ballerinas, and race-car drivers. But, never were we empty of imagination, nor ever bored. Now, did we ever get into trouble? Of course we did.

I broke my arm on one of my expedition to the imagined world of Africa.

Playing in the mud, I slipped, falling to earth in my backyard. I twisted my ankle, skinned my knees, and cut my finger. I broke my mother's best dishes making mud hoppers.

I let the dog chase the cat, I did not clean my room, I broke the bed, bouncing on the bed.

I did not come when my mother called me, and I intentionally got my new cloths dirty. I got punished for being mean, for not being polite, for talking back, for throwing rocks. I got detained after class at school. I got spanked and walloped for teasing the neighbourhood girls, and for kicking my brothers and sister. I often got sent to my room, for tantrums, and for being a brat. But never, not even once, did anyone put a curb to my imagination. Maybe kids are different today. That thought makes me a little sad.

Education itself has become worthless, ineffectual, and trivial. It is no wonder we produce close-minded citizens.

A person can be generally or specifically closed-minded. A few people have fixed and final opinions on pretty much everything. Most of us are closed-minded only in specific areas: only on specific beliefs, ideas, and matters.

We may be unwilling to listen to, and even-handedly consider, ideas different from our own in matters of religion, morality, sex, or politics. But to close one's mind to imagination: it is a sign of a declining person in a declining society.

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