The Things That Never Were

by

“Imagination is the golden-eyed monster that never sleeps.
It must be fed; it cannot be ignored.”
 PATRICIA A. McKILLIP

A man who have been to the home of the brave, the land of the free, the pearl of the orient seas, the land of hope and glory, the graveyard of empires, the gift of Nile and the  sleeping giant is nothing of a traveler compared to a man who reads. A man who reads will always have the gain of visiting the place of the Gods of Norse mythology, the lost city of Atlantis, the city where King Arthur reigns, the Emerald City, Wonderland, the Shire, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, Hogsmeade and the lost boys in Neverland. A book works just the same as the wardrobe, the magic ring and the platform 9 3/4. However, reading a book without even a sliver of imagination is like entering the wardrobe without the calling of Aslan or entering the platform 9 ¾ with Dobby blocking your magic. It is rather a complicated way to travel. Reading is not handing your passport to the airport personnel and taking your seat in the airplane with your mind in your head. Reading is letting your mind out of your head, big and higher than that airplane. It is not taking pictures of the top ten most visited places in Spain but rather it is the etching of a world into one’s mind. It is not meeting the barista of Starbucks in New York but rather being one of  the consul  of King Arthur.

Without imagination, reading is like a baker with no dough to work on. Only the words are there, the ideas, never understood. The words only make a logical and grammatically sentence, not worlds, not people, not emotions. The words only takes the pages of the book, not the reader’s mind for that reader does not let the words take his mind away. The words are the food of the mind. Without it, the mind will never be the place where there are thousands of worlds to explore but will only be the place where nerves send signals. Or the thing that is inside our skull and is very slimy.

A book in the hands of an imaginative reader is a frigate in the widest ocean, the traverse in the terraneous forest and the chariot in the ancient lands.  It is the key to the every lock of the doors of heaven and the doors of hell. It is bridge to see the things that never were and the land where pigs fly. Books are the magic portal to the world that says, “Sky is the limit,” but has a sky that is non-existent.

november 17, 2013