Philosophy of Imagination*Thirty Eight

I have spent most of my forty years trying to make sure my Imagination was always growing. But like everyone, I am full of contradictions and as I was working on growth and learning with my Imagination, I was also trying to kill it. Had a twenty year uncivil war with alcohol. Forty year struggle with societal norms trying to oppress and crush my individuality and self. And 22 years battling depression and sedentariness. All fights that are hard to win and my Imagination emerged victorious every time, always stronger on the other side. Not that any of those battles are over, they rage on every day, but most days it's a skirmish or propaganda, nothing that can't be subdued quickly and with little to no collateral damage. My Imagination has it handled and grows more powerful each day. It's bursting and exploding like a piñata of light and I'm trying to catch every last drop of it on to paper or any surface, making it shine.

Make sure you're catching everything your Imagination is throwing into reality, create and share it with the World! Everyday! Even if it's a doodle or a journal entry or a hug. Make it count!

Art comes in many forms and all you need is one fan of your work. It's best if you are the first most avid one. Love yourself! Love everyone! Love shortcomings more than assets, they're far more interesting and universal.

Philosophy of Imagination*Twenty

We spend a lot of time, most of our time, thinking about what other people are Imagining about us. How we dress. How we look. What job we have. Who are friends are. Where we live. What movies we like. There are no shortage of opinions out there. You could probably call the internet 'Opinion' instead and it would make more logical sense. All this that I'm writing is my opinion on life. It's good in small doses, but almost none of us consume it in small doses. We grow up with social norms that we follow. Our parents have ideas on how we should look, act and behave. Our friends, too. And then we get roped into it, almost from the time we're able to understand the World around us.

All of us have a beautiful, infinite Imagination. One of the only things that's hard for us to imagine is what other people are thinking and Imagining. We can't see their Imagination and never will (we try and give people the best representation through art and action). So why do we spend most of our lives trying to figure it out, when we have our own brilliant Imagination that is aching to be explored. Explore it!

Your reality and how you view the World is different from everyone else's. So quit following their rules and follow your own. Learn about you. Think about you. Be you. And this is not a conceit or egotistical. It doesn't mean you stop helping people or think yourself to be better than those around you. It is simply taking the time to get to know yourself. You'll never understand a fucking thing until you really know and love yourself. Until you set others reality aside and live yours, with no apologies.

I know you're amazing and I've never met you. Now it's your turn to find your own reality and see the amazing light inside of yourself!

Philosophy of Imagination*Fifteen

The dreams you create for yourself with your Imagination are the most precious resource in this World. They are what keeps our Earth spinning and the Universe Universing (it's so grandiose and awe inspiring, it's hard to distill exactly what it's doing -- because it's everything really). Your dreams need to be kept safe, nurtured and growing. Your dreams will always be in your head. Always. When they first emerge, they are so big and sublime that they could fill every last corner of the Universe. They are born from so many different places. Perhaps it's a film that you see (that's my favorite one -- mine was Fargo), or a parent that is great at their dream/profession or seeing deficiency in the World. Whatever exterior things your dreams are born from, you're Imagination takes it and turns it in to palpable inspiration and it grows almost too big to fathom.

Then, it's time for you to start turning those massive dreams into reality! What we call the 'work' or the 'hard part'. We get moving and immediately begin to face resistance, from every direction. The work is hard and time consuming. You begin to get tired. The realization of the dream seems so far off, that apathy and despair set in. You must believe in yourself, your Imagination and your dreams and keep moving ahead. You will be the biggest thing you have to overcome, but the outside World is great at reiterating your doubt. Almost everyone, and there is no hyperbole in that statement, nearly 99% of people will tell you that your entire dream or part of your dream are unattainable, that you should give up. Most of this isn't from malice or anger or jealousy, it's from their perception of reality and how the World works. As soon as we're born, the World begins to atrophy your Imagination. The hard work and the people and the obstacles you encounter tell you 'No' with such frequency, that it is hard to keep your Imagination from shrinking, forget not growing, it disintegrates fast.

You will have to be your teacher, your cheerleader, your guru. Sure you will meet a few people along the way who say 'yes you can' and some who will put you on their shoulders for a while and make sure you stay as close to those people as you can. That you reciprocate their kindness and optimism and remain loyal and true, but most of the work will have to come from within. From your Imagination, even while it is facing a constant barrage of naysayers and pessimists. One of the hardest parts about this is that much of your Imagination has been decimated by the time you reach school age, before you have a real grasp on who you are and what you want. So while your battling the outside forces that want to to disable your Imagination, you will also have to be rebuilding it. It's like trying to build your castle in the middle of an enemy attack. Trying to build a house while the rain pummels you. That's the hard work. 

So many give up. It's fucking really hard and the path to 'no' is easier. We can easily exist in this World even if we're not doing what we want. Lives can be lived and even be fulfilling in other ways. But there will always be that huge emptiness, that empty space (darkness, ether, dark energy, vacuum) in the Universe of your Imagination that can never be filled*.

You can realize everything you can Imagine. Fuck the people who say no. Fuck the people who say you'll never make it. Fuck the people who say you're crazy and are suffering from grandiose delusions. If everyone listened to it, we will still be pounding rocks and living in caves. I don't give a shit who you are and where you came from, you can realize your dream if you continually tell yourself yes in the face of all diversity, if you're willing to keep moving ahead when most sane people would turn back (You can't kill that dragon! Are you fucking crazy!). Greatness lives at the edge of crazy (Stay true to yourself and never hurt anyone and you'll never fall over the edge).

Also, make sure to realize that as you make this epic journey to wrangle your dreams, you're not doing it alone. Your inspirations, all the people that came before you that didn't listen to the 'no's' or the pain in their bodies. We are beholden to them and their Imaginations and the Universe. Without them, you wouldn't be able to live your dreams. And the people that come after you will owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude. Imagine if no one said no? If the World didn't inadvertently destroy our Imagination? If the hard work became a little easier, because everyone else believed in you and you believed in them and everyone helped everyone else on their quest for ultimate fulfillment? If we believed that everyone deserves something, instead of believing we deserve everything for our hard work? Imaginations. The most powerful forces in the Universe, working together for goodness and light? How many questions could we answer? How many lives could we save? How much pain could we alleviate? What if we all asked ourselves these questions daily? If we believed in ourselves and each other?

Keep running. Fuel your Imagination. And help everyone you can to do the same. What a beautiful Light we will make!!!

*If our Imagination is infinite, like the Universe, like time and space, will we begin to understand everything around us better as we grow our Imagination? Will those dark spaces and vacuums and things unknown start to make sense if we believe in ourselves and our Imaginations? That they truly can accomplish anything if we're willing to work hard and maintain our morals and values? Will the mysteries be solved? What is empty space? What is dark matter? What is the dark force? Can we catch light? Do we have to Imagine a solution first before we can prove the theory through math and science? Does something exist before we are able to prove it? Does proving it finally bring the theory into reality? If we all make our Imaginations stronger through hard work and belief in ourselves, will the great mysteries come more readily? Through the strengthening of the collective conscious? Does the collective conscious exist? Certainly there will always be more mysteries to solve, as the Universe/Time/Space is infinite. Surely more questions will arise? Without mystery, without the unknown, how will our Imaginations continue to grow? Knowing everything is fucking boring.

Philosophy of Imagination*Eight

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Battle of Puebla, when Napoleon's enormous army tried to invade and were pushed back and defeated by a much smaller, mostly untrained peasant force that was defending their own land and homes. The French had their lives on the line, but the Mexicans had their lives and the lives of their children and their children's children and so on and so on. Not to mention the future of their culture and traditions. Imagining the decimation of their future existence gave these humble people the power to destroy an army that had them outmatched in every capacity, save the size of their Imagination and will. That's fucking beautiful!

Imagination can be the darkness and the light. Most often, the light is where we want to reside, positive Imagination and vision drives us to better place, but Imagining a dark, hateful future can help people see a World in which they are unwilling to live and endure. Imagining that hell, juxtaposed with the bright, happy future that they also Imagined for themselves, gave them the will and the power to win.

Imagining and working and fighting together (like the evolving cyanobacteria) to see and create a better future for all. I'm sure the French were pretty fucking happy to be heading back to their families on the fleeing boats.

You don't need destruction for growth and new life. You don't send out armies to take what you want. You ask people to help. And then you ask them what you can do to help them. That's how the cyanobacteria became a multicellular organism, by working as a collective. As one. And if we ever hope to mature and evolve into something better than we are, then we must do the same.

Cowards create wars and destruction. Heroes end them. Like the amazing people of Puebla!

Philosophy of Imagination *Four

A few posts ago, before a tangent took over, I was discussing the origins of Imagination. All the way to the beginning of time -- or maybe to the beginning of life. That scope is easier to hold and look at. Especially because time is relative and obscure and may not exist at all (but that's an entirely different discussion).

We start at the beginning of life on Earth. That we can get our arms around. We have a lot of data and science of life on Earth, hard facts and truths. Give it up for scientists, the unsung heroes of our Universe! Them and teachers. Slaving away to make our World a better place and not asking for acclaim or notoriety beyond the science magazines and 'Teacher of the Month' awards. 

Life on Earth started with a single-celled organism called 'Cyanobacteria'. You get capitalized if you're the first living thing on Earth. Well done! Thanks for figuring it out so I can be here now, typing this thought. It is an aquatic and photosynthetic. It lives in water and makes its own food. It's growth and proliferation is what created our atmosphere. The oxygen we breathe is a byproduct of the photosynthesis of this blue-green algae, floating on top of the Earth's water. We have fossils of Cyanobacteria and they date to roughly 3.5 billion years ago.

The beginning of life on Earth. Cyanobacteria. It created an atmosphere that would allow it to evolve into everything else. That's fucking awesome! If its byproduct from food production had been helium, who knows what the hell our Earth would look like?

Cyanobacteria did not have a consciousness or feelings or Imagination yet, at least I don't believe it did. All this was further down the evolutionary road. It did have one important directive -- multiply -- multiply as much as possible so you will live on. So a part of you will always be here on Earth and in this Universe. 

That's crazy that a single-celled bacteria wants to be remembered. That is why life goes on. We all feel that very strongly. It is what motivates us every day to get out of bed. To be remembered and revered. To stay on Earth forever. We want to survive and procreate (most of us anyhow) so we will never be forgotten. 

Maybe the Cyanobacteria did have an Imagination? It was just waiting for a chance to grow. It needed legs to further explore its Imagination, to understand what it was capable of. Are we here because Cyanobacteria had Imagination and fortitude to be remembered forever? Is it okay to be remembered as a group? As People? As Human Beings? Is that enough? I don't think so. And I think most living beings would agree with me. But no one will be remembered forever and that's okay, because the matter and particles we're made of will be around into the infinite. And if we live a good, happy life, all that matter and particles that make up us, will live on to infinity, spreading that goodness and happiness that you created. Do matter/particles have thought and memory? I believe they do.

We should build statues to Cyanobacteria in every city on this Earth! None of us would be here without it! Cyanobacteria forever!