This today from a blog I loved and lost, and found again.
“The term “imagination” in what I take to be its truest sense refers to a mental faculty that some people have used and thought about with the utmost seriousness. The sense of the verb “to imagine” contains the full richness of the verb “to see”. To imagine is to see most clearly, familiarly and understandingly with the eyes. But also, to see inwardly with the minds eye. It is to see not passively, but with a force of vision, and even with a visionary force.” Wendell Berry
Ahhhhhhh.
What struck me was the power behind these words. The feeling that to be imagining, to be using imagination is to be truly DOING something… and not just any old thing either, something important.
So often, I think, imagination is used as some sort of opposition to doing.
This wondrous quote sort of turns that on its head, and returns pride to it.
Me? I am busy doing important work.
I am IMAGINING THINGS.
I am working full time in that case. Of course, Wendell Berry is a good Kentuckian and friend of my aunt Martha (now deceased), so that makes his wisdom even more important to me. Love, Pa