Embracing Failure

 As my brother and I hummed the theme to Firefly, I said to him, "You can take the man from the sky, but not the sky from the man." He disagreed. He always does, when I say something true, because his brain works within the laws of science and various "-ologies" and annoyingly precise Latinate words, and always the word "physical." This led me to investigate the definition of imagination. Here's what I wrote:

"Imagination is not just the ability to imagine things. It is the ability to believe that there is something more wonderful out there. Only "ability" is the wrong word. It's the choice. No, that's wrong, that implies there's a choice about it. There isn't; it's a need. But "need" suggests lack, which there isn't, but there is necessity. "Want" has the same problem, yet there is deep yearning. No, it's belief."

Imagination is the belief that there is something more wonderful out there. Heaven is what all writers yearn to reach. Writing is a deeply spiritual act, for a reason. Just as the inventor strives* to create a better world in this one, we as writers long for the world beyond ours. We forever write and revise, create and destroy in pursuit of the afterlife. But one can't get to Heaven in a rocking chair, but only through faith. So onwards we writers struggle, doomed to failure, embracing it, persevering nonetheless.

*Of course, "strives" suggests success, which there isn't.