“Hoist the Jolly Roger!”
The only human truly infinite wilderness
is the wilderness of the imagination.
I remember well my first experience of the
infinite. It came on my 7th
birthday in the form of a paper kite. It
was pale yellow with the black skull and cross bones printed on it. It was a gift from my brother Tom. Perhaps two of Tom’s most endearing qualities
were the fact that he never lost touch with his “little boy” heart, and his
generosity. Both of the qualities
inspired him to gift me the pirate kite and then thoroughly enjoy the sparks it
kindled in my heart.
A risk of an early April birthday is you never know
what the weather will bring. But that
birthday was sunny and warm – breezy but not windy. Ideal for a test flight.
We also lived at the edge of my known universe at that
time. Murphy Drive curved past our house
and just one more before ending at the edge of an idle farm field. All of our neighborhood streets ended at the
edge of that same field. And it was idle
field as far as a little boy could run and play. That also meant there were no trees to snatch
at my kite; there was nothing but sky.
Tom gave me the stick with the string attached and
walked about 30 feet away. He held the
kite up high and asked, “Are you ready?”
I nodded and he let it go. It
soared straight up and Tom told me, “Let out some more string.” I loosened my grip and let the stick slip
round and round in my hand – the string played out and the kite climbed
higher.
Now some kids might get bored after a while. But not me.
I sat down on a big rock with my eyes fixed on my kite as it waved back
and forth. I felt the tug on the
string. I didn’t feel like the string
tethered the kite so much as the string connected me to my kite. My spirit caught the breezes and soared with
that Jolly Roger kite. The whole
afternoon slipped by unnoticed as the sky seemed endless; possibilities seemed
endless.
The
only human truly infinite wilderness is the wilderness of the imagination.
All the great accomplishments whether they be in the
arts, literature, science, or academics all have a common source in the
imagination. The spark always proceeds
the fire. The dream always proceeds the
vision and the vision always proceeds the new reality.
God lives here in the world of imagination. I do not mean that God is only a thought,
only a dream. God is very
real. I mean that God resides in the
realm of infinite possibilities. It is
only in that realm that unconditional love and infinite mercy could have sprung
forth in the person of Jesus. The
incarnation wasn’t God being tethered by the earth; it was God freely choosing
and deeply desiring to be connected with his creation.
These days perhaps most of all, as the world seems to
have collapsed in on itself, can remind us all that the answer is always up and
out from ourselves. The next answer lies
first in the imagination, then in the dream, then in the vision and then in the
new realities. The realm of infinite
possibilities is one of God’s most endearing gift to us and testimony to the
reality that his most sacred heart never stops beating for us, and the depth of
his generosity that he would share so great a gift with us. He has most assuredly created us in his
image.
The
only human truly infinite wilderness is the wilderness of the imagination.
His Peace,
Deacon Dan
Photo by Danny Wage on Unsplash
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