Stepping Stones to Another Realm

It’s amazing to see the kind of plaything a child loves and craves. For example, a big empty cardboard box. A little snip here and there and presto, a small house, or a store, or a spaceship.

Their imagination is so intense and vast and immediate – that it can go way beyond the “stuff” in front of them, and “grow” their own little world.

They just need the slightest starting point to act, as the seed – some wooden blocks, or a few lines of chalk drawn on the ground. An empty box becomes a car or an airplane seat. A rug becomes a flying magic carpet to other lands. A stick placed on the ground becomes the line between sea and shore, between heaven and earth, between here and the wild woods.

Just play pretend. No wonder the theater holds such magic. For example, the musical play The Fantastics was meant to be performed with just a piano – no costumes, no scenery, no props – all imagination.

Some people do not like to see their favorite books becomes movies, because in some way, part of the book lives in them, thru their imagination – their interpretation into their own vision of the scenes they read.

And who is to say where the line of reality of things is drawn – and where things are but hints, and clues and cues, door handles and stepping stones to other realms.