Saturday, August 9, 2008

Imagination and Work

Earlier today, I was listening to an interview about how children play. The conversation got me to thinking about a couple of things.

Many of us may remember playing as children with a refrigerator box, or washer/dryer box. We could have fun all day, while the box served all kinds of purposes for us and our friends or siblings. The same thing could be said about branches, boards, bricks, blankets, and chairs. Take a few basic items you find inside or outside of the house, add a child's imagination, and you can create a terrific world.

My granddaughter has lots of toys, thanks to the pocketbook and determination of her granna. These include plastic stuff, as well as a good selection of books and CD's that help her learn. Overall, a decent selection.

The thought that crossed my mind is whether the toys that come designed for pre-determined use somehow inadvertantly limit creativity and imagination by prescribing uses for the toys based on their design. Could there be some benefit, or could we enhance the development of the imagination or creative side of the little ones, if we simply let them play with whatever was at hand, rather than the vast selection of toys at Wally World or ToysRUs? Of course, this strategy adopted enmasse wouldn't do much for the fortunes of Fisher-Price.

What about books and movies, in the same vein? Any number of books have been made into excellent movies. I've found one of the beauties of books is that as I read, I can develop the pictures of the scenes in my mind. Probably someone else reading the same book, would have somewhat different scenes in their mind.

When we see a movie, the producer has put their interpretation of the scene on the screen for us to see. Does this arbitrarily limit the use of the imagination by the viewer? Of course, Hollywood and authors won't stop creating movies from books simply because I believe movies dampen the imagination. The whole thing is food for thought, though.

In fact, I heard someone say one time that the mark of a good author was his or her ability to direct the imagination of the reader. That's well put.

Until next time...

Randy

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