Dear Friends,
The theology conference I am attending this week is exploring Catholic imagination through different mediums. You may wonder why the imagination is important to religion at all, but, really, it is very important. A brilliant theologian, Fr. David Tracy, wrote a book in the early 80’s entitled The Analogical Imagination, where he explored the use of the imagination by Jesus and other great Christian spiritual guides and found it essential to understanding how and why Jesus taught as he did. It is essential to understanding how we talk about faith.
St. Ignatius taught that the imagination is essential to a good prayer-life. Two ways that Ignatius encourages people to pray with their imagination are these: First, he asks retreatants to “enter into the vision of God.” God is looking down on our turbulent world. We imagine God’s concern for the world. We see God acting by sending Jesus into human life. This type of imagining helps us see things from God’s perspective and take on God’s qualities.
The second way of imagining is to place ourselves fully within a story from the Gospels. We become onlookerparticipants and give full rein to our imagination. As if creating a book or movie in our mind, we feel the sun beating down, we smell the dust, we feel the itchy clothing we’re wearing, or the rumbling in our stomach. We go on to imagine words Jesus might have spoken and other deeds he might have done. Ignatius believes that at some point, God’s spirit will take over our prayer and bring us into a closer encounter with him.
One of the struggles of many people today because of the constant presence of the many media platforms is that their imaginations have grown weak. Younger children may not find it difficult to use it at all, they require constant input from some other source than their own imagination.
I enjoyed reading a blog on Story Warren from David Kern who helps parents and teachers with educational issues. Here are a few of the things he recommends to help children develop a livelier imagination:
“1) Let kids play with toys that aren’t toys (like pots and pans). This is terrifying, I know. It’s going to be loud. You might get a headache. And it will definitely be messy. But it’s worth it, if you can stand it…When kids play with things that aren’t designed specifically for them – and that, therefore, don’t cater to their limited abilities – they are forced to do two things: 1) imitate and 2) re-imagine…Limits are important, and so are rules. But where you can, let your kids play with more than the toys designed for them.
2) Play a role as a character in their imaginings. Don’t worry what you look like. Somewhere in my family’s archives (read: every scrapbook anyone owns) there is a photo of my late grandfather standing next to his pool, shirt off so that a magnificent swatch of snow-white chest hair is revealed, beach towel draped over his shoulder, and the most outlandish white cowboy hat on his equally white head. I’m telling you, this hat is bad. My brother and I are leaning against him, each of us draped in our own colorful towels, our wet hair plastered to our heads, and we’re all laughing, joyfully taking in the absurdity of the scene. It’s a wonderful photo and I’ll cling to it forever…Whether you’re dressing up with your kids or chasing them around the house like a Belrog, your purposeful engagement in the world of their imaginations is key. If you create an environment in which their imaginations can be fed then their imaginations will create worlds in which their souls can find joy.
3) Let them work through boredom so their imaginations are forced to exercise. If young children are going to learn to work through the malaise that we call boredom we have to let them wallow in it for a while – sometimes on their own. Children are naturally curious; they make connections between things we adults miss and they ask questions so great that even Socrates would be proud. So when it seems like there is nothing to do the one thing we shouldn’t ever do is let them think it’s true. The moment we suggest that boredom is a thing worth acknowledging is the moment a child begins to lose her sense of wonder. But when the sense that ‘there’s nothing to do’ begins to set in, we shouldn’t just say ‘well, go play with toys or read a book or punch your brother.’ We can questions to get their imaginations going: we can ask about their stuffed animals or their imaginary friends; we can ask them to tell us a story or two while they help us do chores. We can ask them to go dress up in whatever outfit they want to wear. We can ask them to look for birds out the window or to count the number of colors they see outside in the yard…”
Those are great suggestions. I hope that you can use them to keep alive your own imagination and those of other young people.
Peace,
Fr. Damian