We build up, we throw what was built, back down. Out of the ashes come ideas that change the world.
I fancy in my imagination how someone, many hundreds of centuries in the past, saw the broken shards of previous civilization, rising to the surface of the ground through the work of rain and nature's elements.
Maybe as this person passed to dump his refuse or to collect water he observed these shards over many years. One day in a flash of inspiration he realizes he may collect these shards and arrange them in an orderly fashion. Using his knowledge of lime putty he understands he may set these shard in a bed of clay which will harden and hold these pieces. He can take fine sand and mix it with powdery soil which will similarly harden and fill in the spaces between the pieces and clean it of with water. On that day humanity is given the art of mosaic tile.
The centuries pass, humanity grows, the next thing you know, you are in the home improvement store picking out tile for your bathroom.
The imagination can, in a flash, provide insights that can leap far into what cannot be learned with a lifetime of ordinary study. The imagination responds when exercised and made to produce insight.
No comments:
Post a Comment