imagination
‘Everything you can imagine is real’ - Pablo Picasso
Where is your imagination taking you?
Wind sweeping.
Refreshing. Not cold.
Water down the back. Heart beating. Foam rolling. Surf.
I don’t remember when it started. My “latest obsession” as my wife calls it.
It must have been the conversation several years back with that local beach-shop owner: ‘You can totally surf here,’ he said. ‘In season the waves are big enough and the surfing is great!’
Let’s be clear. I’m not a beach bum. I just love being near the water. I’ve lived near the Great Lakes most of my life. I love to swim. Play on the beach. Build in the sand. I love hearing the waves roll-and-break. I adore the sky colours and the foam and the smell. The wind. Waves. All of it.
Huron is my lake of choice. The ultramarine of my eye.
My loch-lass.
But surfing the lake? Seriously?!
Seriously.
The idea that one could surf a lake got ahold of me. It was an idea I couldn’t shake. I started to investigate it. Research it. Watch it. Talk about it. I became obsessed. (Right again my darling dear!)
In surfer speak, I got ragdolled. Tumbled. Wiped out on the whitewash. My imagination was running wave-wild.
Imagination. That’s what it’s all about.
The what-ifs and I-wonders.
The I-thinks-I’d-like-to-try-thats.
The how-must-they-feels.
And the I-believes.
It’s all about imagination.
I don’t mean ‘imaginary’. You know, the monsters and talking animals and toys that come to life when you leave the room. The imaginary is but a byproduct of something more basic. Namely, the imagination: the functioning of the neocortex and thalamus of our brains resulting in a widespread and interconnecting neural network highway. The ‘mental workspace’ of our minds as it were - responsible for the creation and manipulation of mental images key to problem-solving, constructing and deconstructing symbols, coding, language, invention, inspiration, art, stories - creativity!
The imagination is that place in your head - that brain-space - that causes you to see things that aren’t there. Feel feelings you’ve never felt. Experience and explore worlds you’ve never been to. Surf waves you’ve never surfed!
t’s the stuff of dreams.
The stuff of ideas.
The raw material of meaning.
The imagination gives inspiration to humanity’s richest expressions: empathy, hope, faith, love.
Imagination is what propels the world forward.
And one of life’s most precious gifts.
On my 37th birthday, I walked down a cold and wet sandy beach barefoot with my wife and friends. Dotting the shoreline were dozens of surfers getting in and out of their gear. Heads bobbing up and down on the rollers soon to break. The feeling of stoke was in the air. Like Christmas in October. I was carrying an 8’ extra-wide fun-board. Dinged and scratched. Worn down by the shreds of many-a-surfers-gone-before. I bought it used from a local surf shop for $400. ‘This is a really special board,’ the salesperson said to me when I picked it up. His hand touched the pin-stripe gently as he fought back tears, ‘This was the surfboard that started it all.’ He went on to tell me that this board was the shop owner’s first lake-board. She had surfed the ocean. Moved to the Huron west coast. Saw waves but no one riding them. So she dared to dream; imagined something different. She bought ‘The BIC’ (as it is lovingly called), caught waves, opened her store, sold lots and lots of other boards and gear, taught classes, and started a movement. Countless numbers have been affected by her contagious love of the surf. Myself included. And now, I am a humble owner of that ‘really special board’. A board of imagination.
That night, when I caught my first real feet-planted-foam-shredding wave, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I could have never dreamed that my conversation five years ago with a stranger would take me and my wife to the shores of my loch-lass with a local surf legend on my birthday to surf five-foot waves on a board named BIC.
How could I be so lucky?
Imagination.
That’s what it’s all about.
Our imaginations are powerful things and when harnessed for good can propel us to unknown places and spaces and affect countless numbers of people in an infinite number of ways for the better.
No matter how old or weathered I become, it is my life’s pursuit to never stop imagining. I want to be a person who always takes risks. Has faith. Gives hope. Feels deep. Dreams big. And chases after it.
Where is your imagination taking you?
Hopefully over countless more waves!
-amos
(And if you are ever on the Huron west coast be sure to visit SurfSup Eco Shop in Kincardine and ask for Tara #1. She’s a surfing master. A regular Yoda on the water. Rent a board from her and go get it!)
