On Daydreaming

 Neil Gaiman gave a lecture on "Why our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming" which was edited and published in the Guardian. I loved it. Books and daydreaming have always played a big part in my life.

I'm also practicing with photo editing using textures. These are my first efforts. I'm not too pleased with the way they look when the photos are enlarged, so I'll go back to the drawing board. Little is more, I think.
 

Back to the subject of books. I usually have a couple of them on the go. Novels I tend to devour quickly because I get caught up in the story line. Non-fiction I take more slowly. I want to remember, to think about what I've read. Non-fiction is usually less addictive than stories, although not always. 

In his lecture, Gaiman asked his listeners to look around them. I did and didn't see anything unusual - a few dishes to wash, a window with grandbaby fingerprints, a pile of tea towels to put away. Then he said that everything around us was something someone imagined. I've been mulling that over. Walls, windows, heat, tables, chairs, dishes - everything was imagined before it was made. What a powerful tool the mind can be. For me, this thought puts value on daydreaming and taking time to think, activities that are highly undervalued in our produce now, publish now world.

Years ago, I remember going into my husband's office in Quito. He was the administrator of a very busy hospital. Meetings, phone calls, emails occupied his time. Yet there he was, sitting in his chair, staring out the window. I asked him what was wrong. "Nothing," he said. "I'm thinking." 

Wouldn't it be great if we all took a few minutes each day to really think? We might do some things differently if we really thought about the implications of our actions and words, both short term and long term. Wouldn't it be great if our leaders, be they civic, political, religious, or employers, did the same?

I'd love to know what you think. Do you daydream or imagine?