Blue Flower Power: Imagination

Apr 24
5 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

Why imagination is where all possibility begins

In many ways, imagination is the foundation of Blue Flower Power.

Without it, there is no Sparkle Valley.

Where Sparkle Valley Began

Remember how I talked about how Sparkle Valley started? Many years ago, my daughter and I went to our favorite garden and we put a fairy boat in the stream. She asked me where it would go. And the practical answer was probably not very far. Once it disappeared around the corner, it would probably get stuck in some branch not far down stream.

Emily and Abigail by the Wrong Way River

But imagination doesn't think that way and that’s what’s so wonderful about it.

I didn’t tell her that. I told her that first it would reach a river, then the bay, then go into the ocean, and ultimately who knows where it would end up. And that's how Sparkle Valley began.

That's what imagination does. It's not just an embellishment of reality or some kind of decoration. It actually opens the door into something real.

Abigail, Gloria, and Reggie lay eyes on the Pink Palace

In general, people talk about imagination in the context of children. Artists too. And then, of course, there's the eccentric creative types.

And to be clear, imagination is the source of creativity and wonder and storytelling and transcendence and all kinds of totally impractical things, which is, as we've seen, vitally important. Because without it, we’re emotionally stunted. We covered that extensively in the Joy section of Blue Flower Power, so let’s talk about imagination from a different angle here.

Because not only is imagination one of the reasons that we want to live (to borrow from Dead Poets Society again), but it's vital from a practical standpoint too. Not because practicality is the point. Not at all. But imagination is much more than just entertainment. It actually allows us to see beyond what currently exists.

Imagination as Agency

Behind every invention, new theory, work of art, relationship, or even a social movement, first someone had to imagine something different. This is imagination as agency.

The Queen of Mean gets her revenge on Abigail

And Novalis has this to say about it.

“Imagination is the creative force of the universe, the power that animates all things and brings them into being,”

This idea runs through Sparkle Valley.

Imagination does things. It can change the world and it can change how we understand ourselves.

At its most basic, imagination is how we can rehearse different possibilities, scenarios. Kids understand this intuitively. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes (see post) was great at this. He imagines the cardboard box as a spaceship and suddenly he's an astronaut. Or a teacher, or superhero. And all this, it's imagination, but it's certainly not meaningless. It’s experimentation.

Abigail spots the Ivana's cabin in Who Knows Where

Joseph Joubert called imagination

"the eye of the soul."

Imagination allows us to see versions of reality that aren't present yet. We can test these possibilities before actually doing something about it. This is something that we all do. Not just kids. You imagine the scenario if you leave your job, you imagine moving to a new city, living in a different house. We're constantly thinking about different scenarios.

George Bernard Shaw talked about it like this."

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will."

Imagination and Empathy

And suddenly we're talking about something deeper. Because Emily doesn't just escape into imagination. She creates meaning through it. Because imagination goes beyond just creativity.

It's also about empathy.

This is something that Martha Nussbaum writes about.

"Imagination is the starting point of all moral reasoning, because it is only by imagining the experiences of others that we can form a truly ethical perspective."

It's imagination that allows us to imagine the inner lives of different people. This then leads to empathy. It's the whole notion of stepping into somebody else's shoes, a profoundly important thing. And it's not logic that gets you there. Imagination.

The War on Mental Space

And this is where our hyper fast modern life butts in. Because to imagine somebody's inner life requires mental space. But that's not what modern life is about. Every moment is filled. Or can be filled, very easily. And if you spend enough time scrolling through pre-packaged reactions you get worn down. Your imagination goes, and you stop imagining alternatives.

And like most things, as time goes by, it gets harder and harder to step out of whatever the current script is. Creation—imagining other scenarios—stops. It all just becomes about reacting.

Richard Rorty (one of my favorites) puts it like this:

"The power of the imagination is what drives social and political change. By imagining a different and better world, we are motivated to work towards its realization."

He's saying that we basically can redesign reality through imagination. So imagination is not about refusing reality at all.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."

This doesn't mean that reality doesn't matter, it’s just that imagination is the force that pushes up against that current fixed reality. And this is exactly what the Blue Flower is about. That yearning. There's always something more, something deeper, something still possible. And that's why imagination goes to the very heart of Blue Flower Power. Because imagination is where all possibility actually begins.