I'm late. I'm late, for a very important date!

I was reading "Alice in Wonderland" and it got me thinking about the idea of professional imaginations. There are some people who are lauded and paid simply for having fantastical imaginations--people like the director Tim Burton, or writer Philip K. Dick of "Blade Runner" fame. William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest master of the English language, and I'll wager it has a lot to do with the imaginative use of said language. Why do we prize imagination so greatly?

The White Rabbit from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland"

In some ways, it's like a magic trick--we know there's something simple behind it, but the effect is so dazzling we really don't want to know how it's done. We also know there's significant work and struggle in play, to the extent where most people prefer others to do the heavy lifting. There's nothing at all wrong with this attitude--since, it's the same one we use when we go to a restaurant and have someone else cook for us--and, so we are safely incredulous at the displays of wizardry.

I spend a lot of time observing people, and something I've noticed is nobody loses their imagination. Bored golfers sometimes perform amazing stunts with their equipment, dulled office workers may do circus acts with their pens, construction workers will dance with their own heavy machinery. It's incredible the depths of human imagination. Many times it's said that we lose our imagination as we age (I've said so myself), but I'm thinking now that our imagination simply changes from fantastical to useful. We still love fiddling and playing, though we make it look like work... seems contradictory, doesn't it?

- M