IMAGINATION

Something made me think about the written/printed word, and how wonderful a trick the mind has given us in 'the imagination.'

What is it to read?  We are the only animals to read.  Our mind's eye is the interpreter, for it isn't always picked up by sight, like the blind man with his fingers reading raised dots, or...

...What was it to hear when stories were told-centuries ago or last summer at a kid's camp by firelight.  Yet, other animals can hear.  They can also sniff and their minds pick up a scent, and know (imagine?) what they smell.  They can recognize the sound of their Master's truck with their keen hearing, and recognize the footfalls of those with whom are in their "pack"-in our case with whom they live.  They can track not by sight but by smell and they know, and ... and when it's something wild and under the snow, how do they know... do they hear, smell or both?... and what do they "imagine"?  Perhaps they only know it's something wild and therefore it's their wild dog clicking in instinctively, they are looking for food... for survival. And what about the dreaming dog, whimpering on the couch with his paws moving in its dream of chasing rabbits, or in a bushy field flushing out pheasants.

Animals can imagine, but people are the only animals that can read the written word and imagine... to sink into the book and in our minds roam the streets the author takes us on, or become a 'fly on the wall' observing his own imagined story, or relating a truth he found in life by letting us live it vicariously.  How great is that!