Essay number twenty-eight: by The Midnight Writer

Imagination

I don’t know if other animals have an imagination but I have heard pet owners say that their dogs and cats have dreams. I will take their word for it.

If they do dream, their dreams would pale in comparison to ours. Humans have developed the imagination into an amazing art form. Imagination has a much larger effect on our lives than our actual circumstances. I believe it is in our nature and I hope it always will be.

It can be so powerful that I question whether or not the separation between reality and fantasy is as great as we believe it to be. Perhaps reality and imagination are just two sides of the same coin. The thoughts we have in our dreams seem to be just as much a part of who we are. Perhaps we are constantly in both worlds but our conscious minds can only process one at a time because of its limited ability.

In an instant we can leave a boring situation and travel into a world of fantasy. We can entertain ourselves for hours studying the mysteries of the universe without a clue about where our dreams will take us.

Like most of our abilities it can have a positive or negative effect upon us depending on how we use it. I encourage everyone to develop their imaginations and try to avoid the negative thoughts.

Every invention from the mastery of fire to landing on the moon came from dreamers. Unfortunately, dreamers also created some dark thoughts and horrific weapons. I guess we need to be very careful where we go when we venture into our dream world.

Our imagination is divided into two parts; Dreaming in our sleep and Daydreaming while we are awake. In the Holy Bible Joseph was an interpreter of dreams for the Pharaoh. There may be a wealth of information in our dreams if we could ever remember the darn things. I know there have been times when I gained a ray of insight from a dream that I remembered but I rarely remember my dreams for more than a few seconds. I assume that’s normal.

I’m surprised there are not more scholars studying dreams. It would be interesting to find out why we dream and whether we could ever master this wonderful tool we call imagination.

I doubt that I will ever master this gift but I will try to avoid abusing it and I will try to use this gift to inspire me. After all it is my imagination that allows me to write these essays.

I would caution everyone to avoid daydreaming at the wrong time. Daydreaming should be kept in check until the proper time. You do not want to be daydreaming while you are driving down the road in rush traffic. You should also avoid daydreaming when someone is talking to you. It is very embarrassing to have someone waiting for a reply from you and you realize you haven’t heard a word they were saying. Like all of our gifts, daydreaming should not be taken for granted. You should work toward using this gift at the proper time and avoiding it when your attention is required.