Use it or Lose it

 

What they don’t show you in a diagram of the human brain is the most important section of all.  It isn’t the frontal lobe or the cerebellum, it is the child’s imagination.  If it were to be on this chart it would be quite colorful.  It’s that part that turns a smelly innertube into a wooden pirate ship and transforms a lazy river into the open ocean.

As we get older, that section of the brain shrinks, and in some, disappears all together.  A few doctors and psychologists have suggested that, acting our age, is responsible for its disappearance.  We tend to lose the childlike behavior and spark of spontaneity we have as children.  We become afraid to look silly.

Sadly, getting that portion of the brain to grow and flourish again requires imagination.  It’s Catch 22 of the thinking world.  Without it, you can’t get it, and to get it you must already have it.

Just note, anyone telling you to act your age isn’t your friend.  They aren’t doing you any favors.  Just look at them and say, “I’m rubber – you’re glue.  Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks on you.”