Monday, May 30, 2005

The Power(lessness) of Imagination

When I was taking tai chi classes (something I should perhaps start doing again), my sifu told a visiting sifu that I had an extremely powerful imagination. He was asking us to imagine a tornado that spun down to our feet, then up to our hands in order to do a push-hands. So I did. The sifu I was practicing with was very surprised by what he felt from me, and said so. Thus, the comment. ANd it's true. Of course, as a poet, fiction-writer, and artist -- and philosopher -- I have to have a strong imagination. Wouldn't be able to do the work I do if I did not.

Thus, it is currently torture for me. I am on my way to Athens, Greece, where I will be spending a month away from my girlfriend, who I am very much in love with. I think of her all the time. I imagine her face before mine all the time. I feel like I can almost conjure her -- I wish I could conjure her -- but there is precisely where imagination ends. AH, what I wouldn't do to be able to actually comjure her to me with my imagination! Imagination can move the body, help you to control it, create new things in the world... but my beloved must stay in Texas while I go to Athens... If only I could imagine her with me, and not have to just imagine her with me.

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