WELL, CAN YOU IMAGINE?
I once knew a lady whose constant response in any conversation was “Can you imagine.”
People were never quite sure whether there was a question mark of an exclamation point after her compulsive comment. Whatever you said to Beryl, whether it was about the mundane or the momentous, you could be sure she’s punctuate it with, “Well, can you imagine!”
She meant well, but it agitated people, especially her husband. I felt him cringe every time she blurted it out. One evening while visiting in their home, I sensed her husband’s patience had run out. She said it once too often. His rapier reply was, “Yes, Beryl, I can imagine an d let me tell you what I can imagine: what life would be like without you constantly saying, “Can you imagine!”
Beryl’s nervous conversational tick might make us laugh, but her question needs to be asked. Can you imagine? If you were to lose your facilities, which would you desire to lose last (as though we would have a choice!)
The faculty I least desire to be deprived of would be two-fold: my memory and my imagination, for with it would go my capacity to think. Memory and imagination are inseparably linked, like a horse and cart. It’s one of the greatest gifts, the gift to believe the impossible in the midst of change and difficult circumstances.
I remember with great affection one of my Professors at Knox Theological Hall where I trained for the ministry. He encouraged his students never to lose the power of imagination. Ian Dixon believed the best was yet to be for all his students. He convinced us that Christ wanted the very best for each of us. The trouble is that frequently I used to think it was not possible.
Many years after my ordination I discovered an anonymous poem that described the unwillingness that I recognised in myself to expect too much, to believe that the best still lies ahead. I wonder, does it speak to you? Read the rest of this entry »
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