You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
~Mark Twain
One day this summer I lay down on a bench to look up at the sky. As is typical for a hot, late, summer afternoon, billowy clouds floated across the sky.
I recalled summer days from my childhood, laying on the trampoline for hours with my friend Johnny staring up at the clouds. We saw everything in those clouds from ninja turtles to power rangers to killer whales.
I looked at the clouds, but all I saw was clouds. I felt disappointment, and even a bit of panic as I realized that I could see no shapes in the clouds. Where had my imagination gone? Had I really “grown up” so much that my mind could no longer create an imaginary world in the sky?
Determined to regain my ability to imagine, to open my mind, to shift my dependence from my eyes to my imagination, I stared at the clouds. The longer I stared, the more like clouds they became. At last, I saw what I had been looking for… a big, fluffy elephant in the sky. Relieved, I stared lazily upward for a while longer and spotted a few more imaginary shapes.
This experience changed my life. As a college student I study the philosophies and wisdom of men. I learn to analyze and synthesize ideas and information. In the midst of this intellectual pursuit, I must never close out the beauty, the simple joy, and the wonder of childlike imagination.