My father, nor, for that matter, my friends' fathers, had much use for imagination. WWII took care of that notion. Tom Brokaw called them the 'Greatest Generation," and I would agree with that judgment. But the price was high. War had taught them that there was a job to do, and the job was right in front of you. Your weapon, your orders and your superiors. Imagination could get you killed. Stick with the proper military order of things and you at least had a chance of living. You were either headed for Berlin or Tokyo. That was it.

        I, on the other hand, had a great imagination. Give me a book and I was one of the characters. When we played backyard football, I was Jim Brown. I could put myself into any situation. My friends and I played army (with toy guns and we were killing the enemy, but none of us grew up to be mass murderers), we played cowboys and Indians, which would be very politically incorrect now. Get this; my sisters played with dolls, my sisters wore dresses or skirts, fussed with their hair and talked late in their room about boys. My friend's sister had an Easy Bake Oven, with which she made small cakes and brownies and with which she nearly burned their house down. A different time that created pretty good men and women. Men and women who do not need to go into panic rooms so they can scream out their anguish if their political god loses and election.

        But back to imagination and my father. He didn't like me laying on my bed upstairs reading a book. He wanted me downstairs watching Gunsmoke or Rawhide or Have Gun, Will Travel with him. Something that would make me a man. But the book, the story and the imagination took me places I could never go in person.

        What about imagination now? A girl can't play like she is a mother with her dolls. After all, she might grow up to be a father. A boy can't play with a toy gun because he will grow up to be a psychopath. Children don't really know what gender they are, and they are being urged to change their gender to suit their moods. Boys can't play tag with girls because it is sexual abuse and the world caves in on them if a five year old boy gives a five year old girl a quick kiss on the cheek. Imagine the confusion that is clouding their little minds as they deal with their biological instinct as opposed to what they are being taught. And, most of all, they have less and less imagination. Your imagination is totally politically incorrect.

        Then we look at our own imagination. Around fifty years old, we find that we have spent most of our imagination. Life falls into a rut. Oh, vacations come, and we feel a little excited, the holidays come, and we feel anticipation, we go to see the grandkids do something and we look forward to it. Little sparks of imagination. What are we going to see on vacation? We will see the kids for the holidays! The grandkids are great at whatever they do. But mostly, years of experience with life, age and heartache has taken the imagination right out of us. How do you know when imagination is gone? When you no longer have challenges.

        So, let's look for challenges. Let's stretch our minds. Let's rekindle our imaginations. We are all going to exit this earth one day, but wouldn't you rather go out swinging than slumped in the dugout?

        Imagination, that is, our dream for betterment, is a Spiritual thing. Speaking of the last days, Joel made this prophesy in the Book of Joel 2:28, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions." 

        There is a place for imagination, now more than ever.