Imagination

2041:

There are promising signs for humans. In so many ways the development of ‘humanity’ process is already happening - it’s seen in our current impulse to go ‘green’, as if we are ‘greening’ our very consciousness. Maybe the impulse to hug a tree represents a sensitisation-of-thinking to the least animate yet most majestic entity in our scope of concern. It’s a willingness to bring imagination into the equation (by imagining a tree feeling being hugged!). It’s where we contemplate positive, creative thoughts. And it could be as simple as thinking about what we might cook for dinner tonight.

But negatively it’s also where we import into our imagination a ‘fear element’, like making a treacle through which to swim. It’s likely that where achievement is linked to pain is where the negative imagination causes us to strain too hard with self-expectation, only to miss the point entirely.

In its most positive form, imagination is relaxed, is quietly achieving. Not so bad, eh? BUT, it’s not necessarily such a good thing either.

Achievement is seductive, in as much as we can prostitute ourselves for it. Even if we don’t ‘sell our soul’ for success, then we might opt for second best. Every good intention will be sidelined when we’re wanting what we haven’t got and being careless of the negative ‘consequences’ like being the cause of someone else’s hurt. Could this be behind the predominant reluctance to empathise with those animals we want to eat?