“What we do not dream we cannot manufacture” Erica Hunt
The most critical step after dreaming is making sure that the manufacturing does not kill the dream. It feels to me the challenge we face immediately after imagining a new future. We are tempted to use old ways, old language, old methods while wanting to create the new. We forget that the emerging imagination disturbs the linear concepts we consciously know and undermines what we neatly have organised in “accepted” reality.
When re-imagining the future we must resolve the gaps of our relationship with the world. “Resolving these gaps through image making constitutes the self and the world in the same process. It is inherent to the structure of human cognition and action.” - Pelaprat & Cole
This “image making” - Imagination: from the verb imaginari ‘picture to oneself’, from imago, imagin-‘image’. is metaphorical. Metaphors support our comprehension (which ultimately is inclusion) of what can’t be linearly comprehended: feelings, aesthetic experiences, moral practices, spiritual awareness. “These endeavours of the imagination are not devoid of rationality; they employ an imaginative rationality.” - Lakoff & Johnson
Many see imagination and perception as separate faculties, performing distinct functions. However, both define sense of reality (what is possible and not possible). “Believed-in imaginings” develop and become under some circumstances “lived-in experiences.” K. P. O’Connor
You are probably thinking imagination isn't a responsible act especially now when the world is facing deep struggles and so many of us are being tested. I believe instead that there are new Future(s) that want to emerge primarily through the re-imagination and reinvention of ourselves and our inner worlds.
Can we imagine our own humanity differently? Remember when you were a child, there were no limits to your imagination nor performative achievements weighing it down.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” -Albert Einstein
Growing up we learn to sacrifice imagination to the altar of responsibility. We start complying and conforming to what is requested of us. What if we could remember to follow that imagination that resides within us and see where it leads us. Close your eyes and feel it. What new future do you see? What is its fabric, color, shape… can you paint it?
Sir Ken Robinson: “imagination is the source of every form of human achievement”.
In 2017 I embraced the journey of reimagining myself. I documented this journey of daily practices and then offered it publicly: Freevolution was born! If you feel ready to imagine a new you, a new future, a new ____ (fill in the blank) join other Freevolutioners and get a copy of Freevolution.
If you’re interested in learning more about RNEWB services and would like to discuss any consultancy, workshops, and talks, drop us a line at fateme@rnewb.com.
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