Why is imagining difficult?

Do you feel washed-out during a long lecture

which doesn’t involve any visual media (like slides, black/white boards, or any activity, for that matter)? Have you ever thought that sitting (while doing no work, as per the definitions of physics) for a very long time is just plain boring? Do you feel doing something an utter waste of your time, because you just do not see the reason of doing it? Or, do you need a reason for doing something?

If any of the above questions has an affirmative answer (when answered honestly), however remote it might be, then you know that imagining is difficult. I have, however, never understood why. Why people lose the patience or the excitement to visualize something only their minds can create. Is imagining really so difficult that some just cannot do it or is it just the lack of curiosity that leads to this.

Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.
--Terry Pratchett

It takes no time for some otherwise interesting content to be a humdrum if the visual medium is taken away and people were expected to imagine. In a similar way, rarely anybody likes to read a piece of writeup which elucidates the experience of a sunset. Some may also find it gloomy to read a long poem which entails the story of a flower. Visual aids, mostly videos, however content-starved, receives more interest. Most like the aid of a visual and physical medium to interpret things or assess the surroundings. That is possibly why, people prefer movies as compared to reading a book. The number of such people, I daresay, is terribly increasing day by day.

Of course, it goes without saying that books are, in fact, more interesting than movies. This, however, is applicable for people who love imagination. I have always felt that imagination is an inherent art which we humans are gifted with. Some, probably, never harvest it out, because … well, I really do not know the reason. I can imagine the reasons, though… but I am not sure whether they are, in fact, true.

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  

Some might find it as just plain unnecessary. But, then again, it is imagination that lets one use knowledge for amalgamating the two beautiful worlds of learning and experiencing. So, thinking it as unnecessary should never be the reason, because it is not. Imagination brings out the inherent creativity, the feeling of desire: desire of experiencing a new world, of devising unique solutions, and of lot more. It also leads to self-discovery, in a way. So, it is definitely viable.

Or, is it that everyday life has become so busy, logical and fast that people just cannot afford to give enough time and reason to do mere contemplation.What happened to pondering over a reason of your own for something that seems to have no reason (for the logical world, atleast)? How many actually take time out to wonder that the splitter-splatter of the rain drops can actually be a form of conversation? How many would love to, and have, picturized a very well-defined world from the mere pages of any text? What happened to contemplating why flowers smile? Or just some mere beautiful and serene contemplation?

Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

--Oscar Wilde

What could be the reason? What do you feel/think? Let’s ruminate on it. Then, let’s share our thoughts on this in the comment section.

Please post your comments to express your views.

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