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Imagine the Imagination

February 28, 2018 By Nancy Casey

Imagine, for a moment, the imagination.  Here is a list of some things that live there:

  1. The weather forecast
  2. That earworm song fragment you can’t shake.
  3. The entire planned and unplanned future, dragging its history behind it
  4. What the cat is thinking
  5. The taste of red licorice when you’re not eating it, and maybe even when you are
  6. Every reason for everything
  7. Everywhere you aren’t
  8. Alexander’s horned sphere
  9. Scenarios of worry
  10. Security

The coffee cup in front of me isn’t imaginary, but it needs my imagined history of drinking liquids from vessels in order to be more than a ceramic blob.

What about the cup’s atoms and molecules?  My education tells me they are real—but much of what I learned in school has turned out to be imaginary.  I can imagine taking the cup to a place where scientists with the right equipment could lead me through procedures for collecting and interpreting data to persuade me that the atoms and molecules of the coffee cup are there, but if I don’t actually take the cup to be tested, are its atoms and molecules real or imaginary?

What is the sound of a cup knocked off the table by the wind when nobody’s home?

What about your immune system?  Is that imaginary?  Auras?  The little people I hear talking but you don’t?

Are all invisible things imaginary?  Emotions, electromagnetism, and the whole underground part of the tree which some believe to be at least as massive as the part of the tree you can see?  Are some things real and imaginary at the same time?

Maybe the imagination has categories—things that were once real, things that might be real someday, group hallucinations, things that never happened, things that never could.   Where would you put Lady Godiva, Atlantis, and George Washington? Not to mention all those things your siblings said never happened.   Even if you could work out some good categories, wouldn’t they be imaginary?  Is anything about the imagination real?

The psychologist Thomas Moore wrote in Care of the Soul that moving from dissatisfaction towards satisfaction is driven not by changes in circumstance, but by changes in imagination.  Because our ideas about who we are and what we are capable of are imaginary.

And the unimaginable.  What kinds of things are those?  Enjoying the company of people you are fighting with?   The second-to-last last number before infinity? Slithy toves?  Is it possible to not-imagine something once you speak its name?

Trying to get a handle on the imagination.

Imagine that—the imagination with a handle on it.

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News and Events

Nancy blogs weekly for the Latah Recovery Community Center, sharing writing ideas that support self-awareness and self-esteem.


Looking for an art project that is secretly full of math? Or a math project that results in interesting art? Equilateral Triangle is an Inquiry Pack full of project ideas that will keep you thinking for a long time.


Writing classes and workshops

In-person Write-For-You workshops at the Latah Recovery Center have been suspended for a bit, but you can still do the writing prompts on your own. For more information, about the Write for You program, or if you are in recovery and interested in writing coaching, contact Nancy.


 

Let’s Talk About It

This is a program that supports reading and discussion in libraries throughout the state of Idaho.

Working with the Program Committee, I updated the theme The Humanity of Science and Technology.


 

2021-22 Let’s Talk About It Discussions

November 10 – Tuesdays with Morrie – Clearwater Memorial Library – Orofino

 

November 18 – A Home Below Hells Canyon – Boise Basin District Library – Idaho City

 

February 8 – The Girl Who Fell From the Sky – Grangeville Centennial Library – Grangeville

 

February 15 – Sweet Promised Land – Garden Valley District Library – Garden Valley

 

March 23 – Less – Coeur d’Alene Public Library – Coeur d’Alene


Nancy Casey's Books

All the Way to Second Street

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COPYRIGHT 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NANCY CASEY | MOSCOW, ID.