Way Ouside the Box

Albert Einstein once said, “If, at first, an idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.”  If that’s true, then I must be one of the most absurd people on the planet.  My entire life has been filled with ideas and experiments that would make even Willy Wonka grab for his security blanket… or perhaps his 401k.  For me, however, this has just been my normal, day-to-day existence. 

 I’ve never been the type to think, “I’m going to go to college, get my degree, and get a job in… (insert your favorite industry here).  That’s not to say I haven’t tried college – I have, and I found it so stifling that I almost pulled my eyeballs out… all four times!  I have always been a critical thinker, a busy-body who continually questions the status quo, and most college people don’t like that.  “Fitting in” has never been my style, nor my desire, for that matter.  

Now, please don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not saying that I purposely rail against the establishment just for the sake of being different.  I’m saying that I am physically, mentally, and emotionally unable to align myself with what everyone else is doing, simply because it’s what everyone else is doing.  It’s like asking a cat to bark… it can’t happen. 

I have traveled some fairly bumpy roads as a result of my thinking way outside the box.  I have lost jobs, burned bridges, and even lost a dear friend in the process.  But somewhere deep inside, I have to believe that God put this quality in me for a reason.  Thinking and dreaming in starkly unique ways is just what I do.  It’s who I am… and I’m okay with that.

My Imagination and Me

For as long as I can remember… probably even longer, I have had an insatiable thirst for creative expression. The happiest and most satisfying times in my life have always been when my imagination was running amok. When my mind goes into creative mode, everything around me ceases to exist. Unfortunately, this has not always made me a good candidate for taking care of the real-life issues that pop-up every now and again, like taking out the garbage, and feeding the dog. No one knows this better than my mother, who has most often been on the receiving end of my imagination blackouts. But luckily, for me, my mom saw that spark (or forest fire) of imagination in me and allowed me to create and explore at levels not seen since the building of the Roman Empire.

All of my teachers had regular run-ins with my imagination as well. Oddly enough, I always earned good grades, but if you were to pick up any of my old report cards from elementary school, you would see comments from my teachers on one consistent theme, “He is a daydreamer.”

If you’ll allow me, I would like to share with you, some of my life experiences, as seen through the lens of my wild, wonderful, frustrating, sometimes stroke-inducing, unbridled imagination.