What if ...

Today I went for a couple of long walks around town in the teeth of a bitter, biting cold ...The sun was shining, the sky was a vivid blue and despite the savagery of the cold air - it was a picture perfect prairie winter afternoon ...

My one regret was having NOT taken my camera with me ... I missed so many beautiful pictures that could have been taken ... a tree laden with berries attacked en masse by an enormous flock of waxwings !!! ... the shape and colour of the ice formations on the river shimmering in the bright sun light ... the wisps of smoke and steam that float out over town from buildings, businesses, and industry ... The list of magnificent scenes that are now just images in my minds' eye is lengthy ...

Next time I WILL take the camera ...

But having to entrust so many beautiful vistas to my imaginings got me thinking about the necessity of using our imagination ... Einstein once quipped that "imagination is more important than knowledge ..."
This weekend our cousins to the south are marking Martin Luther King Jr Day with a civic holiday on Monday ... of late I've been rereading many of his pieces ... and I've been thinking a lot about imagination and how central it is to the human experience.

As children we dream big ... we will grow up to be an astronaut, Prime Minister, a world famous athlete, or a rich and powerful leader ... as youth we still hold to those dreams as we set our goals - they may lack the breath-taking grandiosity of a 5 year old announcing with certainty that they WILL become an astronaut or an NHL goaltender - but they still possess the hopefulness that says "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE."

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE ... now there is the key to imagination !!!

I remember former United Church Moderator Peter Short telling a group of people that there was a time when he was a world famous explorer, a world class athlete, the world's best opera singer and the world's fastest runner ... he paused and said something to the effect of - "when I was five, I believed those truths in my heart because I KNEW they were true ..."

He then went on to muse about how we change our opinions about ourselves as we age and mature ... Somewhere along the line we begin to be defined by our limits and shortcomings rather than by the potentials and possibilities that exist all around us ...

As adults we confine ourselves to safe little boxes and squelch our dreams, instead contenting ourselves with the status quo ... we no longer dare to risk or take chances ...

The first question this raises for me is - WHY ?????

Why are we content with the status quo, when if we are really honest, the status quo isn't cutting it any more???

Why are we so reluctant to dream and hope for things to change???

BUT most compelling - WHY do we continue to tell our children to follow their dreams and to express their hopes - even the kids' programme The Magic School Bus underlines THIS lesson when Ms. Frizzle says in EACH episode: "Take Chances, make mistakes, get messy !!!"

If we don't want our children to USE THIER IMAGINATION, then why do we so actively encourage them to do JUST THAT????

I have come to believe that our imaginations are JUST WHAT MAKES US FULLY HUMAN.

Without an imagination, we would have NO way of envisioning a better way of doing something ...

Without an imagination, we would have none of the innovations and inventions that have so dramatically improved our lives and our world ...

Without an imaginations, humanity would still be poking in the mud around the marge of lakes and rivers and NONE of our accomplishments and achievements would have EVER happened ...

Without an imagination, we would simply cease to exist ...

Yet, too often we actively stifle imagination ... we silence the dreamers ... and we scoff at those who ask the big questions about how things can be made better ...

How many times do we hear - "OH, be realistic!" when someone speaks freely of a bold vision of what MIGHT be ...

This weekend we would do well to consider the RESPONSES that folks like Martin Luther King encountered as they shared a vision - A DREAM - of what Racial, Economic ad Social equality COULD look like ... using source documents like the words of the Hebrew Prophets, the Gospel teachings of Jesus, and the theories of Gandhi, King and countless others articulated, shared, and lived a dream of a better community - a better nation - and ultimately a better world.

Not content with waiting for things to improve ... they marched, they spoke, they wrote, they protested ... and THEY HELPED make it happen.

They en masse took their dream and boldy "took chances, made mistakes and GOT MESSY!!", and along the way they were the catalyst of enormous social change that continues to reverberate through out the world ...

BUT, too often we regard these moment - these events as something that happened "somewhere over there" by people who are some how different from us - somehow removed from us ... We forget that the people like King, Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Tutu, and the others who have lead the waves of social change, really ARE people just like us, who together with many other people JUST LIKE US, managed to do something absolutely breath-taking.

The key in ALL of this, is for us (YOU & I - ALL of us TOGETHER) to never lose sight of our imagination, and more importantly, to never give in to the nay-sayers who would mock us as dreamers and tell us to "get realistic."

The world needs more dreamers. (Please quote me on THAT statement!!)

The world needs people who are willing to take chances, make mistakes and get messy.

The world needs lots more of those kinds of people.

And the place to find THOSE people is right here ... in YOU and I.

WE ARE those people - those dreamers - those activists - those fools who honestly believe the world can become a better and different place if we only try ...

This is not some pollyanna plea to save the life of Tinkerbell by shouting - "I DO BELIEVE!! I DO BELIEVE!!!" Rather it is a call to faithful action by the dreamers and visionaries that live and move among us ...

It's simply an invitation to step outside the box, and leave the safety and security of our collective comfort zones and not only ask and face, but begin to answer the tough questions about whether we are capable of doing things differently.

What if ???? The substance of the quesiton is entirely up to each one of us ... the important gesture is to be open to the potential and possibilities that WILL arise when we begin to ask repeatedly - "What if ...??" as we move through our day ...

Today as I walked past empty store front after empty store front along our Main St here in Minnedosa, I wondered to my self: "What if, enough of us stopped accepting things the way they are, and started actively, aggressively and OPENLY agitating for change??? What if, enough citizens wrote letters, forwarded emails, and made phone calls to businesses about relocating here?? What if, enough of us said - "WE WANT A BETTER TOWN!!!!" and began promoting all the great things about Minnedosa rather than waiting for "someone" to do it??"

I realized today that there is much in Minnedosa to be proud of - and there are many worth while things that deserve to be boldly proclaimed promoted ... and ALL it takes is a some time, a few dreamers and some courage to say (and live) the question - "WHAT IF?????"

And all it requires is a imagination ... and WE ALL HAVE THAT !!!

Who's with me ?????