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March 23, 2005
Imagine That
Jeez, I was so disappointed today. I drove to south Texas to give a talk. The weather was beautiful and I was looking forward to taking pictures of a small town I had driven through a few years ago. This was the quintessential small town. The town you see in the movies. I wanted to take pictures of the main street to sketch at a later date. I recall this picture-perfect town hall with old western-type buildings on the town square.
No dice! My imagination had messed with my memory and re-created the town completely. The place was not quaint. It was gray and dull and actually falling apart. It did not look at all like I remembered.
My second grade teacher Mrs. Varrie said, “Your imagination is the gate to your future. It is one of the most wonderful gifts you have been blessed with.”
I agree. My imagination fuels my dreams but it also gets me in trouble sometimes.
With the help of my imagination I have an amazing ability to create great expectations. I also have the ability to develop unrealistic expectations. These expectations kick my butt every opportunity they have. Firstly, with my approval, my mind creates dreams that are sometimes almost impossible to live up to. Secondly, my imaginations can trick me into believing that something is a lot better or a lot worse than it really is.
When it comes to perfect dreams, the imagination is really good at helping us to visualize an ideal world filled with perfect people. We picture the dream date with the ultimate partner on a beautiful night. In reality, anything can happen. The day of the date you find you have been the recipient of a heavy zit attack. Then it snows and surprise, surprise, your dad takes a pee with the bathroom door open as your date walks in the front door.
Then there's the music. Every movie that has a perfect scene always has just the right music to set the mood. That doesn't happen in real life. There is no music gently piping from the sky during a perfect Sunday picnic, which suddenly turns into the hailstorm from hell.
I remember seeing a movie once that I thought was really great. In the film, a couple were sitting on the beach and talking. It was beautifully filmed. A cool song by one of my favorite groups was playing in the background.
During a vacation later that year, I tried to replicate the scene in real life. My real life. I took my date to the beach. As the sun set I tried to kiss her and I slipped. She got sand in her ear. I got sand in my eye. We both got sand in our hair. We went down to the water to try and rinse off. As she stood ankle high in the water, I looked up at the red sky and tried to hear the music. All I heard was a scream. She turned and rushed out of the water. I finally caught up to her and found that she'd been stung by a jellyfish on the back of her leg. The whole date was a disaster and wasn't even close to what I dreamed or saw in the movies.
I’ll never give up on my dreams. That would be foolish because my dreams and imagination have fuelled my success, but I am now conscious of the fact that the world inside my mind and the world outside is sometimes a little different.
Posted by trevor at March 23, 2005 04:23 AM
Comments
Replications are slippery things. When they align themselves with expectation, often the results are less than dreamy. But, as with everything, expectation does color the inner lense in distorting ways.
I used to go to the Chalfont Hotel, in Cape May, NJ. when I was little. I used to sit on the porch in big (then) green rockers and eat the large square lollypops that one of the regular residents would hand out. I kept caterpillars in the tiny drawers on the top of the old dressers. There were Linden tress lining the street, and trees with odd puzzlepiece pieces of bark I would pull off.
It was huge(then).
I went to visit this old seaside hotel in my early years of a now defunt marriage. I brought my infant daughter.
I turned the corner prepared to see a tiny white building, et voila!
It was huge (now).
I cannot begin to tell you the joy I felt when my inner vision had actually aligned with my outer vision on something so powerful from my childhood.
But, then again, having grown up next door (yes, I said next door) to Fred Rogers (yes, THAT Fred Rogers) made life a bit more magical than most.
Sorry your Town was not what you expected. And the date, too.
Posted by: Julia at March 23, 2005 06:24 AM
I've thought about how everything's always perfect in the movies and how that makes it seem like it can be that way in real life sometimes as well. The truth is not even in the movies is it that way - sometimes they have to do 50 takes before they get the perfect one. If only we had that chance in real life, 50 times to get one thing right.
Posted by: Pink Sun Drops at March 23, 2005 07:32 PM
Seems like the country has turned into "homogenized" towns and cities. Did you at least get to enjoy the blooming bluebonnets en route??? That's what inspired me on my latest road trip in Texas.
;~) Sharon
Posted by: Sharon Hendry at March 26, 2005 09:35 AM