Philosophy of Imagination*Forty Two

I've already talked about how I believe we all have an incredible Imagination from the time that we're born. Something has to keep a child entertained when it's in utero. The mind can't live in darkness. It would drive anyone mad. So, we're born with our fantastic Imagination. There's nothing you can't do when you're a child. 

My theory on this next thing is hard to discuss, because it's so personal, but I think it's worth looking at. It has helped me to understand and heal. I was sexually abused when I was a kid. I'm not sure by whom or how often. My whole life it's something I had always thought may have happened, but I wasn't able to accept it as fact until recently. Medication for depression, therapy and the love of my wife and family helped get me there. But the initial impetus was my thinking on Imagination and how it works. How is my mind/Imagination so strong that it can block entire pieces of time in my life? That blows my mind.

Could the people who suffer severe mental and physical abuse go somewhere safe, until the abuse is over. 

As I've thought over my past, my Imagination helped make clear to me that the past is the past and it could be replayed a million times, a trillion times over and the outcome would always be the same. That there was nothing that I could do to stop the abuse. That the abuse was not my fault. That I am not damaged. That I have the confidence to tell people and not feel judged. That I am exactly me and don't have to be anything more than that. That I accept and love myself, every part and forgive myself for any past moments of weakness. 

Once you're able to forgive yourself, forgive yourself for everything, a magical thing happens. You're able to forgive everyone else for their shortcomings. It's beautiful. Nearly indescribable. 

I have forgiven my abuser/abusers, whomever they may be. I am by no means thankful for being abused, but I am very thankful for what it has made me. I wouldn't change a moment of my life. Even the awful shit. There is no shame or guilt if you have been abused. None. And I know it's hard to think about and face, but if you can see how bright the light is on the other side, it is worth it. But everyone in their time. It took me forty years of life to be able o accept and admit to myself what had happened when I was a kid. Love you all! We're all in this together and we need to help each other. Don't stay in that darkness alone. Come into the light and beauty where everyone will welcome you with open arms. Like Q-Tip said, 'Come spread your arms if you really need a hug.'

Philosophy of Imagination*Forty

I'm forty now and I've never felt so young. It's like a drug, that I've waited for on-line, for twenty years. Worth the wait, bet your ass. I didn't know so many neurons could fire so much goodness at once. Imagination is my drug, my juice, my love--trumped only by my wife and family and dogs. Imagination has given me everything and I can't wait to keep feeding it daily.

I read a recent article about 'Simulation Theory'. It's basically the plot of THE MATRIX, minus the evil human battery overtones. The theory posits that our whole Universe and existence is a computer simulation, a real life Sims. It's interesting to think about. After writing all the code, doing all the math, tinkering with algorithms, did they push the button (The Big Bang) and let us go? Are they constantly manipulating things? Who is it?

I find the theory interesting and fascinating to think about, as do most. The Matrix blew almost all minds and it's remained popular, because WOW! What the fuck? That could be true? Are we in a simulation? Well done Wachowskis! Nailed the jump, didn't stick the landing and I think for good reason. Because when they tried to explain the start and continued existence of us and our Universe, the theory gets too confusing and stupid. I believe mostly, because it's a fun theory, but untrue.

Computers want perfection. Without it, they don't work very well. Ever get a virus on your computer or run outta memory? Shit starts to go bad quick and fast. You're computer becomes a miracle to a pile of junk in no time. Complicated systems have lots of complicated problems and our Universe is most certainly complicated and the most complicated thing in this complex Universe is our complicated brains. 

If we lived in a computer simulation, things would be breaking down all the time. We would see behind the curtain, the wires, the smoke and mirrors of our creation. We would see the fuck ups. They'd be all over, all the time. But not one person has witnessed one or has any proof it. Kinda like God. God as computer programmer--I think not.

Our Universe is imperfection. That's what makes it beautiful. Computers work on perfection and perfection is dull and boring. We aren't a computer simulation. We are a fucked up, disorganized, cluttered mess of beautiful being.

Philosophy of Imagination*Thirty Six

I struggle with a lot. A lot. But one of my biggest issues is listening. I am so packed full of opinions, I can't wait to interject or give advice, pushing my agenda. Problem is, no one gives a shit, besides me. Why do you think I'm writing these posts? I justify this, because it's written and people can come to my website to read it only if they want to. Otherwise they can ignore me. I'm fine with that. 

I'm certainly not alone in my deficiency. Most of us suck at listening. It really does take practice. A lot of it. I'm good at being quiet while people talk, looking on, attentive, sometimes with my brow knitted or the slow head nod in agreement with what is being spoken, but am I really listening? No. I'm taking it in, but I'm urgent to use my modicum of wisdom to help them solve their problem. 'Here's what you should do...' Bullshit. I'm making them my audience.

Have you ever cleared your mind, leaned in and only, really, truly just listened? Until a week ago, my answer was 'no'. Big, granite sculpted 'no'. But I've been trying to be aware. Cognizant. Clear-mind. No retorts or opinions on deck. Listening. It is crazy how much more you can absorb. It lands and feels different. So weird! But it is hard to remember to do all the time. I'm gonna keep working on it.

Listening is another key to growing your Imagination. Listening, empathy and Imagination are aligned. To really know people, to Imagine yourself in their shoes, to empathize, you have to listen like that. Forget yourself for a few minutes and listen. You're with yourself all the time. You have the floor for 24 hours out of the 24 hour day. You can handle sharing it for an hour or so every day. 

One of my favorite quotes ever is;
'You can't say anything you don't already know.' -- Unknown

Listen. Be curious. Expand your mind and Imagination. We are pliable. Nothing is certain, it's our best guess. Take in all the information you can, from both sides and think about it. Turn it over, look at it from every angle. We should be proud that we change our minds. That's evolution. Growing and maturing. Those are the people that survive. People who are stuck in their ways, will stay stuck, like mammoths in the tar. Not many mammoths around any more.

Truly listen. Erase you for a minute and listen. 

Philosophy of Imagination*Thirty Five

I think we can agree that the best things in life are the hardest to attain. To get them, there a lot of work, sacrifice and pain involved. Why is that? Why are the best things in the Universe, the hardest to get? Are they the best in our minds, because they are hard to get? Because of the scarcity? Or is it more natural? It has to be hard to gain a reward? To feel the joy and adulation, you have to struggle? No easy answers?

Let's break down some examples to get a lay of the land. We'll start simple. Walking on a beach. It's easy, sure and at sunset, there might not be a better place to be. But is it easy? When you were a baby, you had to learn how to walk. Definitely not easy. Probably one of the hardest concepts to learn. There is so  much balance and adjustment happening, billions of synapses firing, muscle cells, memory and on and on. Walking is fucking difficult, but we take it for granted once we know how. Sure, you could lay on the beach like a slug and still get some of the ambiance, but you need someone to carry you there and pick you back up once the tide comes in. That's a big favor. Someone that loved you would surely do it, but love is incredibly hard to come by. Way harder than walking. There are so many intricate emotions, coupled with a lifetime of experience, the lens in which we see the World, any of which can trip up love and are willingness to engage in it. And all of that complication is doubled, because it takes two people to love. So you're on the beach, walking or slugging it, but you had to get to the beach. If you live near the coast, you have a small advantage, you may only be a few miles away. However, if you live in Kansas, you have to earn the money and pay for a plane ticket. You have to fly there, pay for a cab. Once you're there, you have to be present, patient, in the moment. You're on the beach, feeling the waves tickling your toes and the sand compressing under your feet, smelling the salt and seaweed. You must have focus to be truly present. Our minds want to wander, thinking about the baby screaming on your flight or the fact that you couldn't get anyone else to come with you or that you overpaid for the cab. Taking a walk on the beach isn't as easy as it sounds.

Next let's look at drugs. Drugs are fun. They make you feel amazing when you're doing them. Life of the party, being yourself, you can't lose! Until the drugs wear off. The you gotta get more. Drugs are expensive, so you have to earn the money. Or steal it, which has an enormous price, because if you get caught, you go to jail and your freedom and independence is stripped away, far outweighing any benefit you've received from using the drug. That goes for the using of the drug, too. If you are caught using, possessing or selling, straight to the slammer. Freedom gone. That is steep. Even if you have the money and you don't get caught, you still have the hangover, depression, the need for more drugs to keep your high and then it really starts to affect your life. Job, family, living become second priority to the drugs. You waste everything, health, happiness, life, to keep that fleeting drug high going. The cost far outweighs any pleasure. Therefore, it cannot even be counted as something good.

Nothing good is free. It all comes at a high cost. We have to keep moving and working hard and growing as individuals. Movement is life. Having a great life involves a lot of movement. In the right directions. We have to keep trying to get what is great, what is blowed and sought after. 

If movement is life, can you sit still? Of course, but you have to be engaging your Imagination and soul while you sit. If I go into my backyard and plop down on the grass, if I let myself think about anything in my life, except for the backyard, I'll get bored fast. But, if I am thinking about the backyard, listening to the birds, looking at the clouds, feeling the grass, smelling the fig tree, watching the bugs and the birds, fueling my brain with the present, I can sit there for hours. I am sitting still, but I am still moving a lot. If you sit places and stew about all your problems and place in the Universe, you're living in the past and what's the only thing in this World that we can't change? The past. Get out of there! Forward is the way! The present is the way! If you only live in those two places, think about how much movement you will have. Think of the life you will have! 

But why do we have to move to have a great life? I'll interject one of my theories, that all good things, on or below the surface, have more gravity. The beauty, charisma, confidence or even just an object. Matter and particles, just like people, want to be part of something. The better and more sought after that thing is, the more gravity it has. Gravity draws us in, mentally, physically and spiritually. So why don't we get sucked in to what is great in this World? Why aren't we bouncing in between gravities of the beautiful and amazing in life? Why are we attracted to them, but are held at arms length? Is it movement alone? If we don't have enough movement in ourselves (or the particles that make us up), the lack of excitement pushes us back. 

So do great/beautiful/awesome things have gravity that draw people/particles in, but there is another force pushing away with equal power/pressure? If you don't have enough movement/excitement, you get left in the cold? What would this anti-gravity, pushing force be? Dark energy? Which is the opposite of light/Imagination? Is it our inability to leave behind ourselves, our past, our opinions and judgements? Our inability to leave it all at the door and exist with something new? Until we are able to drop our guard and the armor we've created around us, encumbering us always (we think it is helping, but it is holding us back and creating unwarranted pressure), can we not move enough to see things for what they are? Is that the force pushing back? Our perceptions of life? Would relieving ourselves of these perceptions allow our Imagination to run wild, to move, with no impediments? Untethering your held beliefs/life experience/opinions and allowing them to drift off, would allow your Imagination to show you exactly what you are capable of? That you can proceed without fear? If we can say we know nothing and drop all preconceptions, will we see all things for what they truly are? Is fear/racism/hate/stereotypes/past experience the force that is pushing away, even as gravity pulls? Anti-Imagination? If you let anti-Imagination rule, you will move further and further away from yourself, from who you really are, because you're letting the past and outside forces/opinions/people Imagine for you? 

But jobs and big houses and fame don't have opinions. They are inanimate. But the people who control jobs, real estate and fame do. Are these people with power the ones creating the anti-Imagination/dark energy/pushing force? Is that why space is black, because it is constantly growing? Movement creates light? And you need a lot of it, working three times as hard to make it punch through the dark? Does movement create light? Does lack of movement create darkness? 

Does relinquishing all fear and secrets and preconception allow you to create great art, or run a business well or raising children? Does it make you more accessible through personal interactions or interactions with things that you Imagination has created? Does it create more light in you that people are drawn to, because you've made it more accessible? Made yourself, your true self more accessible? Putting yourself and movement and hard work into something will draw people in. You're increasing your light/gravity and letting the dark energy/opinions/ego/secrets go? You're letting yourself go and saying, 'we're in this together', let me share with you everything I've learned so far, which isn't much. Like Socrates said, the only thing I know for sure, is that I don't know -- that's a paraphrase. 

I think I might only know three things for certain.
1. BE KIND to everyone and everything.
2. LOVE YOURSELF. Especially the warts.
3. IMAGINE and WORK HARD to catch it!!!

Everything else is a theory, waiting to be disproved by a more simple idea. 

Darkness can never catch light? It is faster and stronger, but not by much, than darkness? If the Universe weren't expanding/moving, it would be contracting, collapsing in on itself? If light is leading the way into the infinite and darkness is always too slow to catch it, then light will always exist? Is movement time, too?

Movement is life.
Life is light.
Be yourself and you will be the light.
Be the light.
Shine bright for everyone to see!!!

Philosophy of Imagination*Twenty Eight

Imagination is amazing. Probably the best in the Universe as all feelings and emotion and consciousness are born of it. The physical World and the people, animals and nature are the only thing that out-cools Imagination.

As with everything in the Universe, Imagination is half light and dark. Your Imagination can conjure greatness beyond compare. Love, hope, happiness, films, paintings, architecture, physics, biology, saving planets, saving lives, science fiction, spaceships, unicorns, unicorns that fly spaceships, ii(that's my new acronym for 'Into Infinite'--meaning I could keep listing things forever). 

Your Imagination can conjure fear, hate and darkness in equal measure. Murder, betrayal, car crashes, gossip, the World against you, hate, demons, blood, evil, failure, worthlessness, loneliness, apathy, ego, racism, hopelessness, ii.

The key is to keep as much focus as you can on the Light. The darkness needs to be there for balance, but it can sit way in the back in the obstructed view seats. Fear doesn't have to be part of your daily life. And shouldn't be. Bad things happen all the time, every second of every day to someone in the World, but that doesn't mean we have to live in fear of it. It becomes crippling. We deal with bad situations as they come. They will make you sad and scared and fearful, but when those emotions come, if you have a strong Imagination of the light, the one that you cultivate every day, you will be able to push those dark Images away and see a future of light, of overcoming all evil/fear/hardships that life throws at you.

Imagine that you get a call from the police. Your brother/sister has been in a car accident. As you rush to the hospital, you are scared and fearful. For most of us, our Imagination takes us to the worst outcome. Paralyzed. Disfigured. Brain damage. Death. This is normal, but if you can also Imagine the light alongside it. It's a fender bender. A few broken bones. It will be hard at first, but they will make a full recovery. The stronger the light side of your Imagination, the easier it is to nullify or even ignore fear.

If we can ignore fear, we will reach out further, we will try new things, things we've been putting off, go places, meet people -- live! We will live a fuller life, devoid of fear. Even the small fears we have, like what are people are thinking of me? Do I look good? Am I doing a good job at work? Will this old yogurt give me food poisoning? You will go and do without thinking about or being hindered by fear. You can be your beautiful self. 

Imagine how much more you will do and get done if you don't have to ponder the fear and uncertainty of every choice and decision that you make. Sure, you should still be cautious, but there is a huge difference between fear and caution. Caution is being safe, taking into account things that may likely go wrong and taking measures to mitigate problems. Fear is mostly unfounded events. Like being murdered if you go for a walk at night. Fear makes you stay inside and watch TV instead of getting exercise, enjoying fresh air and talking with people you come across. See how much fear can negatively affect even a very small decision, small decisions that we make thousands of a day. You see how much fear plays into our everyday.

Imagine light. Imagine how much fun you will have. Imagine the experience you will have and the stories you can tell for the rest of your life. No one tells stories about watching TV. 

Get out and live! Don't let fear cripple you. Think on why certain things make you scared and fearful. See if they are caution or rational fear. If they aren't, dismiss the fear and plunge ahead. Imagining the light will get you there. The only thing you want to blow out of proportion is how much fun you will have!

Philosophy of Imagination*Twenty Six

I am a writer and a filmmaker. They are my first love and occupation. With this writing, I am leaning into philosophy. I think, therefore I am kinda shit. Love that, too. 

What I am not is a degreed scientist or physicist. I love both of those things too, but at present, I am a dilettante, working toward novice status and eventually I hope to be a knowledgable practitioner. Until then, I claim nothing of my writing other than they are my theories on the Universe and life. That is all. I am a curious human and I want to share my Imagination and ideas with whoever wants to read them (so far only me and maybe my Auntie Farah). 

I believe my theories to be more than fanciful ideas. I think they have merit and as my life goes on, I hope to be able to prove their worth through study and the scientific method and lotsa math. If you know any mathematicians, send them my way. Some of the greatest ideas in the World come from people on the outside, who aren't bound by years of structure and study of how things are. I'm fresh eyes. I'm an optimist. I'm a dreamer. In my eyes, that more than qualifies me. My wife probably thinks I'm edging towards weird and crazy and she may be right. History shows you gotta be kinda nuts to dynamite the foundation of common knowledge.

Let's keep exploring and talking the unknown and bring new knowledge and ideas to the Public!!!