He dared to imagine everything
-Henry Miller, Sexus
As I walked along the cliffs overlooking the ocean, I passed a man
walking in the opposite direction. He looked familiar, possibly a
trusted friend of long ago or a family member, but I couldn't quite
place him. With a sudden shock, I realized it was me, a
better-looking, more confident version of myself that I remembered
from a previous life.
I turned to follow him, trying to conceal my intentions by walking
several paces behind him. It didn't work. He turned and watched me
approach. As I drew near, he said softly "I have a gift for you."
"What is it," I asked?
"A world for you in another universe." He handed me a paper towel
tube. "Pretend it's a telescope. Use it to see your world in the other
universe."
"That's ridiculous" I snorted.
"If you won't use your imagination" he said, "your world is going to
be boring..."
"How about I imagine I can fly and jump off of this cliff? That
certainly won't be boring," I said derisively.
"Congratulations, you just used your imagination. You imagined what it
would be like to jump from this cliff and lay smashed on the ground
below. If I asked you to imagine what the rest of your life we would
be like, a vision would immediately flash through your mind of years
of meaningless toil at a dull job in which the wages barely keep up
with inflation. You ever notice how easy it is to imagine something
you have direct experience with, such as falling or boring work, but
how difficult it is to imagine something you have never tried?"
"I haven't, but now that you mention it...," I started to say.
He continued, interrupting me, "Gods imagine what they have never
seen. That's what makes them gods. Would you like to be a god
Randall?"
"I would love to be a god."
"Well Randall," he said and pointed at the cardboard tube in my hand,
"start by imagining your universe. You may find that it is not easy to
be a god."
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