iMaGiNaTiOn

Jake came home from practices the other night preachin' about imagination. “It’s becoming a lost art”, he said. “My junior high players have no imagination.” He went on to tell me that in order to be a division I basketball player, you have to have an imagination when practicing….to be able to imagine defenders, game winning free-throw shots and last second buzzer shots. He wanted his players to be able to mentally put themselves into game-like situations and heated scenarios ….enough that they could feel the pressure to perform….being able to do this would help them get to the next level. This got me wondering…do we ‘lose’ our childlike imaginations as we grow up? My thoughts turned to JJ who at 2 ½ has just discovered his imagination, and can get caught up in his own little world day by day. Each day I have the best of intentions to sit down and interact and play with him with his toys….but what usually happens is that I lay down on the floor by him and get lost in watching him come up with his own scenarios with his toys. I watch as he calls Elmo on the phone. “MO! Mmmmm…mmmmm….go” (translated as “Elmo, let’s go out to eat!”). I watch as his ‘little people’ gather around their picnic table at the airport and pray before their snack. I watch as legos turn into swimming pools and “dubba dad” and jee jee (JJ) the lego guys go to the “wa-wee” (pool) and then to the park. I watch as he cooks Jayla and I dinner in his play kitchen…corn and pizza usually. I watch as he goes to the store using my Christmas snow flake wine bottle holder as his grocery cart. I watch as he drives up to me in his little tikes car so that he can get my pretend credit card to fill his car up with pretend gas. I watch as McDonald’s happy meal figurines become mom, dad, jee jee (JJ) and ba (Jayla). I watch the wheels turn round and round in his head and I smile….for the first time seeing imagination as a gift that his daddy says is so special to hold onto…..oh, that we could all have the imagination of a 2 year old.

Lego Dad is about to jump into the pool.

Cookin up some dinner.

From the left it's Dad, Mom, jee jee and Ba.

Video -Pretend talking to Dad, "ehhh, Bye, balling, ehhhh, okay, eh...Dad, Dad, okay, him balling"