IMAGE I NATION
Over the holidays Mitch and I were staying in NY with his friend Derrick. I noticed a big metal tray of rocks with words on them.
“They were my mom’s,” Derrick explained. “Take one.”
I leaned in and took the one that called out to me. A palm-sized, egg-shaped mostly smooth beige stone. It instructed me to:
IMAGINE
I rubbed my thumb across the black-worn-to-grey etched lettering.
But as soon as I started to feel like it was mine, I felt doubtful about my choice. Maybe even repulsed, scared, or embarrassed by it.
I leaned back in to exchange it.
”No. Keep it. It’s the one you were drawn to,” Derrick urged. “And you already decided.”
The bolded italics his - because we’d just been talking about my - according to a Variety review that had just come out - ‘potentially life changing!’ original audiobook - So You Need To Decide.
He was right. Of course. I had already decided, easily and clearly.
So I shoe-shoed the second thoughts away and pocketed the word.rock. And that was that. Then over the next few days, as Mitch and I rounded the New Year and traveled back to LA, I kept thinking about it. The only memento of this trip.
IMAGINE.
I thought about the word and my complicated feelings around it. I’m creative. I have no mixed feelings about that word. Except maybe as it’s become corrupted by content culture. But somehow imagine, with it’s boundary issues, is something of a problem.
I thought about how I’ve built a life around the practice of creating. And as part of that I consider myself resourceful - curious - productive - risk taking - practiced - storied - disciplined - decisive - descriptive - courageous - inspired - even groundbreaking. But imaginative? Not so much. Imagination might be my weakest suit as a creative.
How would my life be different if I felt I was better at - and even actually was batter at - imagining?
I was willing to ask that question and not know the answer.
I’m a recovering know it all.
And now, when I come to a question I don’t have an answer to
I try to just love the question.
Instead of panicking.
And grasping for answers.
I thought about how ‘creativity’, the word, comes from a word meaning to grow - not a word meaning to make - common misconception - and so I challenged myself to grow into more imagination. Instead of needing answers.
And so I put the rock on my desk.
And rolled with it.
So for the past 4 months I’ve been looking at and holding the world IMAGINE. It’s been a kind of companion. Especially seductive and instructive as I created my new show It’s A Lot - which is about this new world and my own experience with creativity/manifestation. Certainly imagining is part of manifesting. I started to think about how imagining is a mix of intellect and emotion.
It comes from a word that means to copy. And without getting distracted by a conversation about AI here - in someways imagination creates the thing which we then copy into our 3D world.
I fonked that rock - sometimes running across my forehead to iron things out.
And maybe something has shifted.
Because my friend Clifford Bell asked if Mitch and I would do a song in his annual Our Name Is Barbra benefit for Project Angel Food. Sure. Love to but what songs. It’s always tricky finding a Barbra song that I can even imagine myself singing.
He suggested Imagine. I had no idea she’d ever sung it. And I had to laugh.
I guess that word.rock is working its magic.
I had imagined Imagine into existence.