Watching Clouds

Dearest Readers,

Today I was laying down with my dad on a grassy hill and we were watching the clouds and making pictures out of them. Here's a list of some of what we saw: 

Gandalf
Iceland
Dragon
Old Lady with a Sombrero
An Old Bearded Dude (not Gandalf, another one. I have named him Fredrick.)
Greenland (I kept seeing countries, I have no idea why!)
A Dragon Bird (Or a Bird Dragon)

But we began discussing imagination out of this, since I was the one who spotted most of these shapes in the clouds. And we were talking about how when you're a kid, reality and imagination are hand in hand, you're always using them. A stick becomes a sword, a tinfoil hat becomes a helmet, your old rocking horse is your majestic steed, and your younger brother is the dragon.

As we get older, we don't think like that anymore.

Sticks are sticks.

Tinfoil is tinfoil.

Rocking horses are rocking horses.

And brothers are well.. creatures from Mars.

When you become an adult (I'm getting this all from my Dad, I don't know from experience.) you deal with reality so much that imagination doesn't really come into play as much as it used to. It's separated from reality, no longer one and the same.

Here, let me give you an example.

Setting: Playground.

Problem: Someone is stuck on the slide.

What the Child sees and does: Someone got stuck on one of the mighty sea-dragons scales as they slipped down his back, Child thinks. Child picks up a stick and runs at the slide, pretending to chop it's head off. "You're free!" He shouts to his friend on the slide, pulling on his hand and getting him out of his predicament. His friend beams and shakes his hand. "Thank you, Sir Brave-A-Lot, you saved me from the evil dragon's clutches!"

Setting: Playground.

Problem: Someone is stuck on the slide.

What the Adult sees and does: Some kid is stuck on the slide. Adult looks around for their parents, or someone to help them. Finding none, walks over and asks the kid if they may help. Proceeds to give them a small push to get their momentum back.

Children (or people that are constantly still using their imaginations) intertwine reality and fantasy, while most adults or older children keep it separated.

Which is why it was easier for me to find pictures and patterns in the cloud than my dad. Cause I am constantly using my imagination, and he does not as frequently. Now, this is not all to say that we will all lose our imaginations, just that it is second nature to us as children and we begin to have to actively try and use it, instead of just automatically switch.

But in my mind now and forever...

Sticks are swords.

Tinfoil is armor.

Rocking horses are majestic pure-bred war horses.

And brothers are dragons.


~Rubix