Art in Words: Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge"
--Albert Einstein


I almost just want to leave it at that. I don't really think I can say it more succintly than that. Memorizing every fact on the face of the planet will do you no good if you don't have the imagination to do something with it.

Sometimes I think we need help looking at the world in a less mundane, factual way. I have read that children see the world in a more symbolic sense before they reach age six.

Oh to be five again . . .

(Actually I think that's just proof I never grew up. People tell me things all the time and I want to shake them and scream "But what does it MEAN?" And never ask me to remember too many actual details --the color of the walls for example --but I can always remember how they made me feel and fill in details based on that-- pale, bright yellow. Happy but not to loud)

Staying young forever worked for Peter Pan but sometimes we need a little help nurtering our creative, metaphoric, abstract side. It's still there, it's just smothered in so much practical knowledge, survival instincts and the general cares of the world that we can forget to tap into it. Even when writing, something that should be all about creativity, we can get caught up in tecnique and word count and whether or not you will get done in time for the book to hit the stores before Christmas that we forget.

To listen to what our story is trying to say.

To be fearless.

To love our own work.

To give in to our inner child.

To imagine.