The Disappearing Imagination
If most of us were asked how we felt as children, our answer would probably be that we felt carefree, free, and that life seemed full of color. So why, when we become adults, does everything seem gray? Is it because we lose our imagination? Or do we simply set it aside? Do the rules and realities of society kill our joy of living? Why is it that what makes us happy belongs to what we call “the good old days,” which is almost never the present? Is that why most of us consider childhood to have been the happiest time of our lives? Because life was all about play and free from responsibility?
We no longer reflect. Reflection requires imagination, not reality, because reality already tells us what to think, while imagination pushes us to think for ourselves.
It’s like when, as children, we played at finding shapes in the clouds. We did not see for what they were, but for what they could be. We thought through imagination. It was a perfect exercise in accepting other people’s perspectives. In fact, the more different those perspectives were, the more enjoyable and engaging the game became. Why is it no longer like that? Why are we so afraid of distancing ourselves from reality and imagining, and therefore thinking? Is it because it is more convenient this way? We no longer have to decide for ourselves, and some of that overwhelming pressure and responsibility is lifted from our shoulders. Is that the reason? Why have we started focusing only on the risks of doing something and stopped building the courage to believe in it?
08/2026 NIMA
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