If it weren’t for bad television, we’d have no television at all. Maybe it’s something about growing old, but the only enjoyable programming plays on Public TV, or so it seems. We were fortunate about a year ago when one of our kids said we could piggyback on their subscription to Netflix. It offers an enjoyable selection of movies plus other fare, and one of them prompts some thought.
“Anne of Green Gables” might well have been the last story I’d choose to spend time with, but since my better half vetoed my protests, we began watching. My inclinations to find something more in the rough and tumble style of a John LeCarre spy movie or a gold-mining western in Deadwood were soon forgotten as I found myself drawn into the life of Anne, an innocent young lady who had never experienced happiness in a family situation.
She was an orphan placed in the care of various families that never considered her part of the family but instead made her work as an unpaid laborer. To find love and comfort she developed worlds of happiness in her imaginative daydreams. Seemingly in answer to her dreams an elderly bachelor farmer arrived one day with horse and buggy to pick up her up. Living with his unmarried sister on a farm, they wanted a boy who could possibly become their heir. Instead, this ragged girl Anne appeared in the doorway. The old farmer argued they were promised a boy but reluctantly took Anne home. As they rode along she wouldn’t stop talking which started wrapping the kindly man into her imaginative world. By the the look on his face we saw he found it refreshing.
The sister was aghast at this mistake and wanted to send her back. Imagine Anne’s emotional pain of being unwanted. With some handwringing, the farmers agreed to let her stay one week, but Anne’s constant dreams for a better world started to win the sister over, too. Roadblocks in the community rose up to prevent her acceptance as they chattered on about this ill-mannered skinny freckled redhead. Fears of being sent back to the orphanage always threatened this temporary happiness she’d found. It’s not the intention here to tell the complete story of “Anne of Green Gables,” but instead to relate how a rich active imagination gave Anne some relief from her upbringing and the cruelty directed at her.
It makes me wonder if my imagination is intact and healthy or have I slipped into some level of sluggish groupthink brought on by the necessity of adapting to the customs of the organizations I worked in or the news media I follow. All of our electronic media devices have the potential to squelch individual thought and dim imaginations because it is so easy to just “copy” and “paste” other people’s thoughts and sayings onto our facebook posts. While I have a lot of “friends” on my facebook page, I only spend time reading about a half dozen of them, those who have exercised their imaginations to construct a coherent theme with original thoughts and arguments.
The name Steve Jobs comes to mind as one of the founders of Apple computers. He and his partners exercised their imaginations to come up with a great product. From something he said I take an important lesson: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
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