Imagination:

Living Into Change as a Form of Play

I’m learning how to follow an elusive feeling of magic, for lack of a better word – of spine-tingling, heightened awareness. I’m trying to notice what sends a subtle current of “ooooo, yes, yes, yes, this!!” through my body, and to make decisions from here. Because my learned strategic logic isn’t working in my current life like it used to. It feels like the rules are changing as I live and breathe. The millisecond I try to refer to some logic that was true in the past, I slide backwards into a space that’s drier, deader, stuck. So I’m following this elusive feeling that is constantly emerging. That I am partly shaping as I observe it.

What I notice about following this feeling is, it’s a lot like play. It’s how I remember creating imaginary worlds as a kid with my sisters and playmates. It’s about what lights me up as opposed to going into my head for a safer, categorically knowable thing.

Many scholars are diving into the concept of “radical imagination.” What if this line of thinking could help pull us out of the conceptual stalemates going on all around us? Not having explored the works on radical imagination enough myself, I can’t represent them here. All I can do is speak from my own experience. Share some musings that might hopefully begin to crack open the door to something that feels really, really fresh and vital for our collective evolution.

I’m not sure exactly when or why it began, but at some point in the early 2000’s I started dreaming into what the enlightened society I would want to be part of would look like, function like, feel like. My particular version of this vision included mountains with the ocean in the distance, vast forests of life-giving trees and plants, modest, sophisticated structures dotting the landscape utilizing both ancient and cutting edge technologies, permaculture awarenesses baked into all the pathways weaving together the humans and their individual spaces and shared spaces and gardens and ceremonial spaces and tinkering spaces and art spaces and food spaces. Clothing is creative in my future awesome world – it is celebratory, and self-expressive. The children are a part of everyone’s lives. The old people are taken care of right there among us, and we all treasure the wisdom of the many moons they carry on their backs. The water is sacred, the earth is sacred, the air is sacred, the fire is tended, and known to be sacred. We humans greet the animals, the birds, the sea creatures, the insects, and we learn from them and we exchange with them. We humans have grown emotionally and spiritually to the point that joy is our baseline as a collective. Our hearts communicate directly with one another. Language is used for expression and play, like clothing, but is not mistaken for truth. Boundaries are set and enforced through enlightened conflict, and advanced forms of communication. Life is in balance with the laws of the natural world, birth is celebrated, death is glorious, and we remain present collectively for all of it. We humans live in our bodies, not just our heads. We use 100% of our brain capacity. And we discover advanced capacities of these exquisite instruments we have – our hands. Technology is a servant to the human heart’s capacity for Love. Awe and wonder are a part of every day. We are able to see the night sky clearly, and we regularly have collaborative communication with life in other parts of the cosmos. We love each other so much that every moment is saturated with meaning.

Oh, and whenever I want sweet sticky rice with mango, I can go to any of the village ama’s and they will make me some. Maybe someday I would get to be one of the village ama’s… I would let myself wear some magnificent clothing, fitting of a revered village ama…

In a recent interview by Krista Tippett for the On Being podcast, writer adrienne marie brown proposed:

We live in this abundant world. And we've been told it's scarce, right? And then we're given all these stories of scarcity. So, so much of the work for me of radical imagination is like, what does it look like to imagine beyond the constructs? What does it look like to imagine a future where we all get to be there, not causing harm to each other, experiencing abundance?

What does abundance look like to you? In a moment of total inner abandon, when you’re not censoring yourself, what do you wish for in your ideal future world?

As we stand alongside one another, letting ourselves go there, we are collectively blueprinting that world. What a potent act of evolution.