“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
Over the years, I’ve taken the month of December as a time to intentionally sit down and reflect on the past twelve months. I look at the year from all of the different points of view, the good, the bad and yes — even the ugly ;-)
I do my best to look at these events with no judgement. More importantly I review the year with the deep hope that I may be catalyzed, starting anew with a whole other set of “lessons” in my tool box.
I am certain I am not alone in saying this year’s lessons were at a whole other level. And I believe I will be learning from 2020 for a long time to come.
I have a very vivid memory of the exercise that started me on this exploration of a word (or, in the case of last year, an idiom) that represents a whole year. As the years go by I have felt more compelled to go through the process. However, considering only one word or phrase has been more than a bit of a daunting task when it comes to this CRAZY year. I mean, really: 2020 has been a… saucy minx to say the least!
To start the process I read and re-read a few of the past few year’s entries , where words easily revealed themselves. Words like “surrender”, “distraction”, “FAREWELL”, “anchorless”, “turbidity”. Last year was the first time I selected an idiom “Walking it off” and then I truly got stuck. Could there even be just one word or idiom to represent all of the things that have happened in 2020? I haven’t been writing much so it was even more overwhelming than usual, so this made the whole process more important for me.
At the end of 2019 I started a new endeavor, something I deeply believed would contribute to my life’s work. I spent hundreds of hours interviewing women throughout the world and on March 8, 2020 I launched a virtual trade show platform to weave the women of the world together. Later that evening, as the realities of COVID-19 were hitting all of us, I sat IN A RESTAURANT with three dear friends to discuss the day’s amazing accomplishments. We came to the realization that even the hopes and dreams of my virtual enterprise would probably be deeply impacted by what was to come.
In that restaurant, the four of us began to dream of what we could do if the world had to close down, for what we thought would be a couple of weeks — maybe a month. One of the people at that happy hour with me was my dear friend Janine. Janine is a Heuristic Futurist, and she had been hearing of this illness in China for months. Yet, she had seen scenario plans that had “PANDEMIC” on them for many years. So the conversations began in earnest: What would we do now that we knew this was a real threat??
Janine proposed the idea of doing a workshop called RE-IMAGINE YOUR RESPONSE (remember: this was on MARCH 8th). From that we launched into action, even spending a whole day filming experts (less than 10 ;-)) in pandemic management, emergency response and communicable disease. We seized on our collective talents to put together something that would be of service to ourselves and others. Perhaps, more importantly, this “something” could actually help navigate one’s way through the unimaginable.
Because of that gathering, I have spent the better part of the year creating workshops, consulting and personal work reimagining. The funny thing? This process has led me to an even bigger thought: perhaps the idea of “RE-imagining” is part of the challenge of our times — what if what we really need to do is learn how to IMAGINE?
So of course off I go to trusty dictionary.com
First to what does reimagine mean?
transitive verb. : to imagine again or anew especially : to form a new conception of : re-create.
AND
IMAGINE
[ ih-maj-in ]
verb (used with object), im·ag·ined, im·ag·in·ing.
to form a mental image of (something not actually present to the senses).
to think, believe, or fancy:
He imagined the house was haunted.
to assume; suppose:
I imagine they’ll be here soon.
to conjecture; guess:
I cannot imagine what you mean.
I could go into all of the definitions of this word and for the sake of all of you who ALREADY ARE THINKING TL;DR I am going to stick to just the first definition -
“to form a mental image of (something not actually present to the senses)”
Now started the fight with myself 😏 I promise this is not as crazy as it seems. What actually IS the difference between these two words, and WHO CARES??
Well in a year such as 2020 perhaps I get a pass to dig in a bit.
What I have learned in the “RE-IMAGINING” process is that when massive a change (a.k.a. “threat”) occurs — we can just call it COVID-19 — us crazy humans go into fight, flight or freeze. So as a way to deal with the sense of danger that these massive changes have created , we need to develop coping mechanisms. A primary mechanism could be to visualize peaceful and calming images. OR perhaps it could be the idea of RE-IMAGINING. I get stuck at the idea of the “RE” — it is actually part of the challenge, creating more of the problem we are trying to address. What if we have nothing to “RE” about?
In the world of NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming, your language creates your experience. So, by using “RE” you are “repeating” or using the old to create the new. ACKKK!! Who wants to re-anything 2020?!
When we think of words like RE-create, RE-born or probably another frequently used word in 2020 was RE-connect. If we found old friends from high school and started talking to them again, is that really reconnecting or just plain connecting?
A great example of how “RE” complicates things: the entire world was catalyzed by the excruciating death of George Floyd, and there have been many calls for what needs to be done in response. One idea that seems to keep coming up is the idea of “RE-IMAGINING” Policing. What I have experienced is this conversation becomes volatile before it even begins. There are so many points of view that need to be looked at in order to RE-IMAGINE. I wonder, would the same be true if we used our imagination to come up with something “not actually present”?
Author and speaker Charles Eisenstein talked about the concept of “imagination atrophy” in his book “Sacred Economics”. He describes it as the inability to imagine your own world, so you default to what is handed to you with things like video games, TV and films. Perhaps this is also the reason we as humans are so bound and determined to RE-IMAGINE: maybe we have lost our ability to imagine. How wrong is that?!
After all even Albert Einstein said “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” Who doesn’t want that?
John Lennon was probably a bit prophetic in his music. Let’s be clear: the one song that will represent Lennon forever is called IMAGINE — not re-imagine. His creation remains a tower of strength, possibility and humanitarian hope to this day.
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” ~John Lennon
Is it time to drop the RE? It is broken after all. If COVID-19 has done anything for us it has allowed us to drop the “RE”. I believe it would help us all get through to the other side.
With that, you are now invited to join in the greatest empathy exercise of all time… the opportunity to abandon the old paradigms and IMAGINE a world that works for all humans, not just a few.
