Aug 30, 2023

This week's Awakin reading is by Geneen Marie Haugen titled 'An Ode To Imagination':

What is unique about human beings? That was the question that followed me. Other philosophers have supposed that our form of consciousness is unique among the animals, or our symbol-making ability. But I want to propose something else that may be unique to our species, and that is our ability to imagine what does not yet exist, and then to create it. As far as we know, no other species has this capacity, with which we have made violins, iPhones, Hubble telescope, nuclear weapons, space travel. I mean, we know that beavers, who must keep trimming their ever growing teeth, gnaw down trees to build dams – but they don’t seem to be building dams intended to light up Las Vegas. I want to propose that everything human beings have intentionally made, every modification to our "natural habitat", was born first in imagination. For better and worse.  The human imagination ... [Read more]

Seed questions for reflection: How do you relate to the notion of colonization of imagination and the need to cultivate our human capacity for imagination? Can you share a personal story of a time you became aware of a world full of intelligent ‘Others’? What helps you develop embodied awareness of ‘Others’ as alive and intelligent?