I completed a book I had been stalling for some years now. I don’t know why I stalled so long but the book turned out to be a very good read. It took me away from my current realities into this blissful state where I’d be staring at the characters, knowing what each was thinking and patiently waiting to see the end. I was quickly reminded about the limitations of TV and movies. In a movie, Tom Cruise is the same as I see him and as you do. But in books, a character can be viewed in different ways by different people reading the same book.

Imaginations! This for me is the ability to create a world beyond the limits of reality. I like that books allow your imaginations run wild.

But then, there’s the danger of always living in your head- aka living in a bubble. Our brains interpret stuffs we hear or read in terms of images. If you say you’re super tall, muscular, dark skinned and you play basketball. My mind immediately rummages through known images and probably ends up matching you to Shaquille O’Neal. So, whenever I hear your name, I picture Shaq. Sometimes, I tend to view my group of friends as the guys in the TV show ‘How I Met Your Mother’ or ‘Friends’. I begin to pair similar traits to such characters. I once paired my best friend to Lily from HIMYM and I’m somewhat Robin. (If you know me well, you’d know I’m far from being the gutsy Robin…Lol)

This post maybe a little tricky to understand but please hang in there. For some reason, this topic keeps gnawing. Another example of being driven by your imagination is in the parent-child relationship. Growing up, I always felt my parents were superheroes. They looked invincible. They made the world a haven. I still don’t know how they did it. But being out of the nest, I know the world isn’t a haven and they must have also suffered the brunt of economic tides, harsh weather conditions etc. They are as human as I am and have experienced even worse situations. That was a huge meltdown of my prior imagination of their invincibility.

I’ve been watching some shows on Investigation Discovery channel; for instance; Boy meets girl on social media. Girl says hi. Boy begins to imagine some relationship between them and some future in lieu. Girl posts pictures with other boys and the boy gets offended- feeling she’s cheating on him. Then the obsessions, the stalking and sometimes the desire to kill the object of his fantasies.  I’ve discovered that most of such characters in these shows get stuck in their heads. Their imaginations override the reality. In this case, the reality is that the girl was just a polite stranger who replied his chat.

A lot of us have the image of who our ‘perfect’ mate should be. Thus, we fall into the web oftentimes of meeting someone who has the top five things on our list and completely establishing them as ‘the one’. Once our minds make up this match (imagine a face recognition moment in FBI movies) we have this Eureka moment! Reality becomes vague as we feed the imaginations of a future or of some picture-perfect moments. Though, this lad may just be a bomb waiting to explode. Your friends know it, your family know it, but you just seem to be living in a big bubble!

Are you in love with an imagination? 

Look at your life, are there people you like or are in a relationship with, because of how your mind has portrayed them to be? Sometimes you must allow reality override your imaginations so you don’t get stuck living in a bubble. Juxtapose reality with your imaginations from time to time so you don’t wander off in wonderland.

Thanks for reading!

©Mfon Etuk, 2016