How Blanket Forts Could Solve The World’s Problems

You don’t need to check your twitter feed for more than a minute or two to comprehend the amount of chaos and jeopardy that wraps tightly around our world right now. While we can point the finger at numerous instigators, I believe the most systemic reason for our current state of cultural “stuckness” boils quite simply down to one problem: a lack of imagination. 

Consider that one of the greatest risks facing our modern society at the moment is our inability to evolve imaginatively at the same rate we’re evolving in other capacities.

As children we spend magnificent amounts of time constructing blanket forts, drawing maps, or deciphering kingdoms out of cloud formations. No one needs to tell us to do this or how to go about these operating procedures. The instinctive urge to create worlds that have never existed before, to literally see what’s unseen and speak it into reality without fear or shame is an urge we possess early in our development as human beings. By the time we find ourselves sitting in a cubicle, however, that natural, often daily practice has somehow been reduced to the occasional far off gaze lackadaisically manifested by self-conjured phrases like “what if...?” or “if only...?”

I believe that this is because most of us at one point or another in our adolescence have been told to abandon our blanket forts, throw away our maps, and assimilate to the way the world actually works. Maybe it was a teacher. Maybe it was a bully. Maybe it was a parent, a boss, or a coach. For most of us, it was a combination of all these, some well meaning, others ignorant, all of them damaging. This narrative often reinforced itself with a slew of negative consequences if we did not abide. Over time, we were conditioned to believe that the kind of nonsensical thinking we were used to as children had a non-negotiable shelf life and that shelf life was over.

And for this reason I am convinced there are a million creations sitting at the bottom of an ocean of souls begging to be explored, recovered, polished, and treasured, if we could only dive deep enough to hear their cries.

The message we should have heard as children (and hopefully the one we get to tell ours) is that our innate ability to imagine is one of our greatest human assets, a talent so incredibly valuable that it should never peak at the creation of a blanket fort. It should never settle for stagnancy. But instead, it should mature in tandem with us the same way a 4-year old comprehends counting to 10 but a 4th grader learns to do long division.

It’s possible you may need to put away whatever screen you are reading this from momentarily and go build a blanket fort. You may need to begin to reclaim that intuitive longing you’ve possessed since childhood but buried somewhere along the way.

Disassemble your couch cushions!
Grab the comforter off your bed!

Imagination starts with what’s closest to us.
And time is of the essence.

 

This article is an excerpt from Movement Making: A Guide for Movers, Shakers, & Makers. Download it for free here.