A weekly post tapping into humanity's most curious minds.
Supercharger is a place to get a boost of encouragement and insight from the timeless wisdom of great thinkers, past and present. In all transparency I created this ongoing post for selfish reasons. I have hundreds of books in my library, both physical and digital. This is my way of enjoying the company of these writers, philosophers, scientists, and business people on a more personal level. I don't claim to be an expert on their lives or their work, but my goal is to learn from them and see things from a different perspective.
Each week three great thinkers, people I find fascinating and inspiring, join us to reflect on one intriguing topic. It's about pulling highlights from their books and stories in an entertaining and memorable way.
Supercharger begins at the beginning... Our youth.
We were born with a boundless sense of curiosity and wonder, when there was no limit to our imagination. But as we got older, we lost some of that spark of imagination, that joy, that beginner's mindset.
The environmentalist and spiritual writer Charles Eisenstein expressed it this way:
"Life, I knew, was supposed to be more joyful than this, more real, more meaningful, and the world was supposed to be more beautiful. We were not supposed to hate Mondays and live for the weekends and holidays. We were not supposed to have to raise our hands to be allowed to pee. We were not supposed to be kept indoors on a beautiful day, day after day."
Somehow we bought into the erroneous idea that having a beginner's mindset wasn't a plus in our life. That daydreaming and fantasizing with childlike enthusiasm was shameful and unproductive.
Daughter Morgan in the Florida Keys... happy and free.
In this first issue of Supercharger our visitors are Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak, and Albert Einstein. They’re here to challenge that rhetoric, reflecting on the topic of imagination from an entirely different point of view.
On Imagination
Photo credit: miseroprospero.com
Roald Dahl’s (pictured above) ability to take us on his magical carpet to places such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and teach us timeless lessons on kindness and the power of imagination make his work as relevant today as it was when he first put pen to paper. So many of his books revolve around child heroes changing the world through their own creative powers. “Those who don’t believe in magic,” said Dahl, “will never find it.”
Wife Nicola at a Palisades Tahoe musical event with Avatar vibes
Roald Dahl wrote a song about “pure imagination” (see below). It invites us to take a journey into a place where anything is possible, a world where dreams are realized and our creativity is limitless.
Pure Imagination
Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination
We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in the world of my creation
What we'll see will defy
Explanation
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be
"Pure Imagination" is a celebration of the human spirit, the power to create and explore new possibilities. It’s a reminder that the world isn’t static - or flat for that matter - but rather shaped by our thoughts and fantasies. We think our mind interprets reality, but as Dahl suggests, our mind creates reality. And by embracing our imagination we can use it to create the world we want.
Photo credit: thedailybeast.com
Time magazine called him “the Picasso of children’s books.” Maurice Sendak (pictured above) was a master at recreating the emotional quality of childhood. He's among the most influential children’s book authors and illustrators of all time.
In Where the Wild Things Are, as in his other sensational books, Sendak provided generations of children with a fantasy-filled world of danger, escapism, creative power, and hope.
“As an aspiring artist," said Sendak, "you should strive for originality of vision. Have something to say and a fresh way of saying it. No story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it’s not the work of the imagination.”
In his books, Sendak encourages children to dream, imagine, and explore - essential ingredients for their development - preparing them to face the world with a blend of creativity and understanding. A beginner's mindset. And children aren't the only ones who have benefited and continue to benefit from his books.
Photo credit: theguardian.com
Albert Einstein (pictured above) believed imagination had the power to transcend knowledge allowing us to discover uncharted territories of thought. His thought experiments, such as riding on a beam of light or exploring the nature of time, inspired him to develop revolutionary theories defying conventional wisdom.
Einstein brought his tools of imagination to the challenges of his time... a physicist and a natural philosopher, he remains one of the greatest thinkers, scientists, and thought leaders of all time.
Here’s what Einstein had to say about imagination:
"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for absorbing absolute knowledge. All great achievements of science must start from intuitive knowledge. I believe in intuition and inspiration... At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason… Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Painting by Robert R. Splashy
We are all born with a capacity for curiosity and wonder, wired to seek out the unknown and opportunities to learn and grow. Most of us lose this natural curiosity and wonder as we get older. Our childlike imagination stays in the sandbox.
Dahl, Sendak, and Einstein remind us that with our childlike imagination we can pave the way for unique problem-solving skills, original ideas and creative solutions. We can change the way we see the world with a beginner's mindset, from the world of adventure to the world of science. And if we can change the way we see the world, we can change the world for the better.
Join us next week as we meet with Walt Whitman, William Blake, and Ralph Waldo Emerson on the topic of Nature.
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A Supercharged Education
Photo credit: Corbis
In the wise words of Einstein...
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
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I’m Michael Kennedy, Olympic Valley, CA resident, married to Nicola Kennedy (in photo above). I’m a premium ghostwriter and photographer. I just want to say thanks for your attention - I appreciate it in such a noisy world. If you enjoyed it, please share with others.
It means a lot to me and it helps others see the story.
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