The imagination Hiding in Small Things

Week 19

The imagination Hiding in Small Things

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      1.   Carrying a book is one of life’s pleasant little rituals.

      2.   Let’s say you pull one out of a bookcase downstairs,

            then climb upstairs to sit and read in bed.

      3.   We become aware of these simple acts and what they

            mean to us when we’re interrupted from carrying them

            out.

      4.   Decades ago, a facilitator asked us to cross our arms,

            then reverse the way we always do it. It made us feel

            clumsy, ungainly. Try it.

      5.   What comes to mind is how much these little moves

            serve to hold us up, even comfort us.

      6.   Parsing ritual can be an exercise in imagination.

      7.   Imagination is always some kind of coming alive, a

            knowing participation.

Upheld

Have you noticed

how good it feels

to carry a book?

Just one, with it

held between your

palm and fingers

on one side and

your pressuring thumb

on the other.

Something good

will come from this,

or likely to.

Once, a grade-school teacher

asked me to bring the

dictionary from the school

library to our classroom

for a project—the

big one on the stand,

ten inches thick.

I cradled it in both

my arms and

imagined I was hoisting

a wheelbarrow full of coal,

delivering it

to our cold little house.

© 2012 Allan Cox, Allan Cox & Associates Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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