By Rev. Dr. Kharma R. Amos, Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, Maine
I recently visited my mother in the hills of Southwest Missouri—home. Being there always revives old memories. Every rock, tree, and trail reminds me of childhood adventures and shared family moments, especially in the kitchen where generations have gathered. One memory vividly resurfaced this time. Years ago, we arrived to find the house empty. In the kitchen, a pot of soup sat on the stove. My mom lifted the lid and discovered a roll of toilet paper inside. Her mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario. She assumed something was wrong with her beloved grandmother, who was experiencing early signs of dementia. Her imagination was preoccupied with worry about the phone call she’d need to make to family, the funeral, the paperwork, etc. It turns out that my great-grandfather had been asked to throw the soup out at the same time as another matter called for his attention away from the house. He decided to add a roll of toilet paper to make sure no one ate it before he got back. No emergency—just a very odd, well-meaning choice.
That memory reminds me how quickly our imaginations can shape our reality, often steering us toward fear or anxiety. When we imagine that we cannot, we become the prophets of our own failure. Our assumed limitations become real, and both we and our impact on the world shrink. However, when our imaginations are focused on the world we long for, when they are set free to dream, and when we imagine that we might make a difference, that practice of imagination expands our resources, our hearts, and our lives.
The poet Adrienne Rich said, “Nothing less than the most radical imagination will carry us beyond this place.” From my vantage point, we need some pretty radical acts of imagination to move us beyond “this place” in the United States. Currently, our reality is characterized by a constitutional crisis, a decimation of aid for those in most need, a lack of due process as residents are taken from the streets, threats to libraries and public broadcasting, a corrupting greed overshadowing almost everything, and so much more. The way things are is not the way they must remain, however, and the practice of imagination is one tool we need to build a better world.
So, what are you imagining these days? Have you already imagined the slippery slope of all that could go wrong? Has your imagination tilted towards all the good that is still possible? That which dominates our imaginations often influences everything else about our experience of life. Our imaginations can spiral—feeding fear, paralyzing action. And, they can also do the opposite. A colleague recently reminded me that the same imagination that predicts ruin can also envision resistance and resilience, hope and transformation. When we imagine better futures, we open ourselves to possibility, courage, and connection.
Are you (like me) longing for a world in which there is enough for all and we stop killing one another for profit? Let’s imagine that world together, and make it so.