The Power of Re-Invention

Imagination can be fired like a blast furnace. It can burn-off resentment or churn biter materials for a lingering grudge. Imagination settles injustice & privately plays the scenes where we all come out victorious. It manufactures a world where we are not required to adapt or mollify.

My imagination tries hard to teach moral lessons. I frequently rewind uncomfortable scenes, moments where I acted-out, only to later savour these displays of courage & audacity. Sometimes, I learn from hypothetical coaching; sometimes I take things too far as a result of ardent projection.

Sometimes imagination goes quiet. I search for an image & there is nothing, not even the snow which once indicated a scrambled television station. The inner mind is just inky blackness. I try to fire the screen by conscious projection, perhaps something sexual in the hope that this fantasy will re-ignite the interior regions. Imagination flickers but dissolves back into silence.

I feel flat without this refraction. I shall coax a closed mind back into action.

A few deep breaths & the setting is the maze of imagination. I wander it's tunnels under a light spell, permitting the screen to direct flow & sequence. Time suspends & is on the verge of spinning backward yet I am not in the vortex of memory. As I follow the stream of images, I anticipate a current of new awakening, expectant in needing to be re-adjusted.

I revel in the potentiality of a dawning vision; I ask for transformation.

{Paintings by Katrien De Blauwer }

Expansion

What happens in those rare instances when speculation is surpassed by events in everyday life? In the interior world, much is exaggerated for the purpose of equanimity. When reality exceeds those crafty expectation, there arises excitement—a thrill which strikes like Providence—magic has happened in the real world.

Have I been successful in educating imagination? Has conscious awareness trained the inner screen to anticipate only the plausible? Is this a factor of cache, of practical experience which defines the walls of maturity? Through initial frustration & disappointment, imaginative expectation can be taught to extrapolate only the feasible.

Put all of your eggs in one basket — & watch that basket

 

When unburdening disappointment, we vow never again. Does the unconscious mind eventually take  hard-knock lessons into account, no matter how long it took to forge the connection? Is it a particular style of self-defense, this corralling of expectation in hope against disappointment? We all know compromise can go too far. We might find ourselves expecting less than capable of. Perhaps an argument could be made defending the lack of initial confidence. This period of uncertainty is a mandatory component before activating latent potential.

So the bar is raised; a field of vision adjusts to somewhere further along the golden horizon.When we surprise ourselves, we learn of greater ability. Sustained through future trials, experience promises growth if manifested through the lens of practical wisdom.

{Photographs by Vassilis Tangoulis}

Consider: Reasonable

Would passion be possible without the ardent assistance of an imagination to define potential to enliven, then swallow all constricting reason?

Think of the absurdity of love: Who would chose to resist it's undertow, only to surrender to reckless loss of control? Can we blame imagination for this collapse? It is the projections of pleasure & safety which uncurls the grip on our regular, more reticent selves, those sensibilities which maintain self-control. These delicate fantasies; these secret plans— surely it is hidden whispers of bliss which hurl us off cliffs of all that would normally be considered sensible?

What greater vulnerability than the temptations of an over-heated imagination, spinning potential for validation which love lends to defenseless, self-hypnotized victims? The mind awaits experiences of what imagination has outlined as worthy. There is joy when this expectation is realized; there is sorrow when hopes are ground away under discordant circumstance.

Love through the filter of imagination is potential. It is the realization of entitlement—we deserve love. Without it, we are empty & striving, rejected in some severe, invisible manner. The moods of love lift us from isolation & collects the heart into a swirling whirlpool which never drowns nor pulls asunder. Spirits dance & twirl, satisfied in self-worth.

No mind considers nothing. To rest is to perish; to lose faith in love is to live in exile.


{Paintings by Josephine Wall}

 

The Dissolution of Assumption

If a curious writer decides to contain the workings of imagination to a particular time or theme the creative mind is preoccupied by, is this commitment all that is required to build a foundation which will long-serves as generator for creative function?

Better still: to further develop a manuscript towards texture & finesse, there is the option of reading by chance: accepting whichever book Great Sequence delivers & trusting this new material will blend into the mosaic already underway. Choices for enrichment are inviting but a broadly-applied creativity is needed to ingest new material into what has already been so carefully established.

                                                   
Reading for knowledge is richly rewarding; to learn is power. One of my favourite experiences is to have an earlier assumption re-organized & expanded by the erudite words of someone who has studied a particular subject more deeply. It is a serious gratitude released for the wise writer who bores deeper than I might have once thought possible.

Gifted minds unfold insight & an eager imagination tags along—a swirling whirly-gig of feelings, impressions & gleaned facts wash over former belief. New scenes are created in the banks of knowledge; broader understanding supplants the half-baked. I happily discard the outdated for I have intimate trust, never questioning the writer’s hand who has revealed assumption. An ability to massage & knead earlier bias into fresh perspective is the transference of wisdom.

In the fertile plains of imagination, all that I am expands.

A little knowledge can go a long way but it might not be in a practical direction. How many times have I over-estimated my abilities because I was seduced by some excellence built in the safety of fantasy? Imagination knows where to fill in the gaps: it knows where to fudge the fussy details of actual accomplishment so that I feel as though I always can.

Like a parent allowing a child to assist in some task beyond a level of understanding or skill, my imagination wants me to build confidence by just getting the gist of a thing.

These good intentions allow for a belief in the unlimited power of potential.

{Photographs by Paul Apal'kin}

Sequence & the Guile of Imagination

Sometimes when working double-duty, imagination attempts to not only synthesize polarity in a story but also lay personal ghosts to rest. Somewhere inside the whirly-gig, the imaginative mind fastens onto raw memory from my own past & inserts this as plausible for a character. Even if this specific memory fits into part of an unfolding narrative, I reject it for being too personal yet marvel at the resourcefulness. The mind is attempting to both create & heal; to resolve & entertain.

If I become impatient, I tend to force the issue. In the heat of the battle, the field being the space I am attempting to fill with the next piece of exposition, I start to fling possibilities into the hopper. What if? Could this? Maybe? The more I crank the handle of this mysterious function of potentiality, the more content is generated. It can become a type of frenzy; I engorge the mind with possibility, believing like some empty glutton that more is always required.

It is the objective of this blog to educate the source of imagination.The questions sustains—which are methods best assist this process? Fresh input is essential. Is it more effective to read based on themes of current fascination, layering in new grist for the mill of word play? Or it better to research based upon what presently correlates to the arch of a character's development?

Perhaps it is wiser to begin somewhere near the beginning?

{Paintings by Carol Nelson}

Creativity, Industrialized

A hungry writer must shake empty coffers to make imagination dance. This delirious function is expected to perform on command, at-the-ready to seduce into its screens of illusion. It is not expected to require preparation for this feat; the simple fact that we require must suffice.

A writer's creative mind is not allowed to be dull or repetitious. Marvels must spin from a hidden centrifuge & we patiently record the details which spray across an inner screen. We demand imagination suspend both time & circumstance, all to lend the grist for our daily bread. It works with no service or maintenance; it is never allowed time-off from its tremendous workload.

When I am writing from the deep, working hard to weave some part of a fascinating narrative, the demands chucked at imagination are many. I will have this aspect & I wish to tie it with that function —hurriedly so that concentration sustains.  Sometimes this is a hallelujah pass & I expect something flashy. I want the creative mind not only to form a cohesive union between disparaging data but to do it with a lead to follow.

Time & again I pull the lever of that fantastic slot machine & time after time the mind serves-up coherence. It does not matter that I can be finicky & reject what has been sent, holding-out for something more clever or comprehensive to the complexity possible. Occasionally, it will shoot up a suggestion when I am least expecting it—imagination is tireless & has an enviable work ethic.

This part of the mind does the difficult work, the stuff which requires savvy & surprise. Without this loom of coherence, writing is nothing more than a laundry list of fascinating bits; a junk drawer stuffed to capacity with baubles.

{Artwork by Wassily Kandinsky / Promo: mortontolboll.blogspot.com}

Decrepitate

I feel interwoven; it's just the froth.

What is to stop the fields of imagination from becoming frivolous & irresponsible? How is it possible to grade information & experience, thereby weeding out bits of thinking which serve only to deceive or misinform? Can imagination function at its greatest potential when fed regular helpings of disinformation & fantasy? How might we purify this process so that the imaginative function begins with a seed of pure truth? A sense of reason expects nothing less.

Is the passage of time a metric in imagination's astonishing power? To afford space for a creative mind to weave the warp of private illusion, into the weft of expectation, time must be held in check. When I wait for creative process & sustain the clarity which stops any re-directing or starting over when I do not like what is being shown, I fall under the spell of brilliant cinema. The time afforded this gestation pulls attention inward, toward thought forms which breathe like fractals, expanding & spinning into something alive.

This is when the process works. 

This part is tricky: when I try to imagine myself in the future, looking back to where I am now, it is false remembering, tinged in either nostalgia or vanity. Depending on the circumstances which launched a projection. I peel inside the time capsule to anticipate the shock of the people who open it. This is the imagination of a deprived ego.

 I always cry at the scene of my own funeral.


{Photography by Antonio Mora}