“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein
I've been talking with friends lately about imagination--what it is may never be defined. It is easily confused with other human, but indefinable elements--like the psyche, for instance. I'm a poet, I thrive on imagination, but not all creative people do. Some know they possess it in spades, but are actually afraid of it, fearing that imagination can lead them to "the dark side." I don't fear imagination, nor creativity, which I think are parts of something greater and more complete. Again, it's all very hard to define, and maybe it should be that way.
Albert Einstein's quote on imagination has always shocked me. How can it be that imagination is more important than knowledge? Did he mean that knowledge is subjective and the imagination is pure? I hardly think so. Imagination is influenced by all sorts of world things--religion, politics, poverty, genetics, you name it. But the free flowing state of originality is at the heart of imagination--and that is the jewel in the human crown.
Original thought, which is how I believe Einstein defined imagination, is a precious thing, feared by many. Galileo is a pretty good example--he formulates the concept of the solar system and how Earth revolves around the Sun. The rather severe religious leaders of the historic Roman Catholic Church reviled this thought--and, because they ruled with the government of the day, had him tried and tossed in prison, where he suffered, but could not recant. Imagine how hard the moon shot would have been if we had continued this avenue of thought!
I have a personal experience of this kind of rigid bigotry. I won't go into detail here, but my life was threatened and turned upside down by ideologues. One of them is dead (by his own hand) and the other is in prison for life, I hope. I began to distrust everyone and everything. I especially distrusted every religion, because they did this in the name of god. I almost turned away from the great honor of being selected as the first poet laureate of Sacramento, California. The painter and poet Jose Montoya advised me that it would just be plain wrong to do this. "If you give up, they've won."
These words rang in my ears rather loudly as I stood in the Main Library Galleria with hundreds of well wishers who stood in ovation when I finished reading my poems. I knew that plain clothes police were in the audience. I heard the mayor was not in attendance because of the threat to me. I wasn't sure about everything I heard, but I knew I had to be brave. In the end, it was a happy story. The city celebrated its literary stature, the library was filled with happy, reading people, my family beamed with pride at the many sacrifices they had made to allow my work to flow, and many good things came of my dedication to this appointment. Imagination is worth defending--and I do not say that lightly.
Interesting forum idea, V. I agree with Einstein that imagination is most important. It is the beginning feeling of a shape, a color, an emotion or any form. When this feeling needs to be examined then my knowledge is necessary to define or even explain. It is blue with deep green traces of color -- it's a hue. Then my knowledge becomes my censor and contributor as my feeling is expanded. I then want to present the idea so others can understand, maybe -- or just arouse their personal creativity. What is that thing? How can a shape feel "blue" to me?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, are you waiting for enemies to die b4 writing your biography? Ignorance and action by others helps present our personal courage. Sometimes the courage is to see blue with lines of green. Sometimes courage is just quiet determination to go forward even being aware of proposed limitations. - M
My understanding of the way Einstein created is that he did so as a child does. He asked himself the very most basic, even childish, questions. He loved to play. That's essentially what he did.
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