The Loss of Possibility

“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem

Too many people these days disregard possibility. They spend so much time focusing on the now that they lose sight of the future. They forget that things we do now affect our future. It’s why regret comes in waves and knocks us down when we least expect it. I remember when I saw The Neverending Story for the first time, and I identified with the poor creatures and people in Fantasia who merely want to be acknowledged again by children and adults alike, by people who have lost their imaginations and their will to dream up things fantastic. I identify even more now with those creatures and people now than I did back then. The Nothing is taking over our world.

You see, creativity is at an all-time low because of technology and immediacy. When I was young there was only so much we had to entertain ourselves, so we were creative and thought of ways to enjoy what little we did have. Our imaginations thrived in that environment and we were fulfilled with pretend stores where we sold goods to our pets, or forts in the snow that we fortified like castles with moats and all. Or a myriad of other possibilities because there are no limits on where the mind can go. But these days, with video games that become more real than reality, with iPads and other tablets at our fingertips with endless information, games, and apps on them, our craving for immediacy grows and is fed constantly, which means we don’t take enough time for possibilities.

“Dream big,” we tell our children, the next generation that will either fulfill that possibility or go even farther in the opposite direction, letting technology and convenience win out over ingenuity and invention, but we don’t explain to them how to accomplish this. Instead, we model what we can eventually expect from them without even thinking about it. We stare at our phones in our down time, playing Candy Crush Saga or Temple Run or something or other else while our children watch us, and they’re already wondering how long it will be before they can do that.

Screen time used to be all about watching television, but now the youngsters want the tablets and cell phones, and we get them because they are convenient place holders, when we want them to stay in one place and hold on. That’s not to say that a lot of apps on those devices can’t be educational, but just the act of utilizing them for so much of their time, this next generation becomes dependent on them instead of relying on themselves for entertainment and for independent thought. As this happens we lose so much that we can’t even fathom now, and we perpetuate patterns that will take generations to undo, if even then.

Belief in possibility and a commitment to taking time and energy to be creative is what can substantiate us as individuals and as a culture. That is the way to avoid cookie cutter human beings who are more like robots than they are humans, who think the same things because the almighty screen told them to think those things, and who focus on immediate gratification instead of seeing into the future and envisioning a better one.

“Foolish boy, don’t you know anything about Fantasia? It’s the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries.” – G’mork (from The Neverending Story)

As a civilization we also have no boundaries. Let’s stop forcing ourselves to embrace them, and think for ourselves.

Sam