I like facts, I really do. They’re way better things to base decisions on than not-facts.
But, as much as I often yell that people should just live in reality… there’s an awful lot of disagreement with regards to what reality even is. I mean, we COULD ask actual experts, but WHERE’S THE FUN IN THAT AMIRITE
Also… fact is, I don’t live in reality very well. Not because I hate it — I don’t! I’m a big fan of reality (which I led out with, see above).
No. I just have a “creative brain” (is that actually a thing though?) and sharpened intuition (Andrew tells me it’s just pattern recognition, but hey at least he agrees… somewhat). I don’t do well with endless lists of numbers. I go on hunches and random connections that suddenly leap out at me.
I think this may have led me to make some very wrong assumptions about my own family history. I’m not sure what these inaccurate assumptions are… but I suspect they’re up there in my brain, mingled with legitimate facts… which makes the whole thing very messy indeed.
This morning I’m here to defend this!
Maybe not everything needs to be precise.
Maybe there’s a place in historical interest for the imagination.
In fact, maybe an ignited imagination can be the catalyst behind interest and participation in things of a historical nature.
I think that’s where my interest came from, to be honest.
It started like this:
I realized that I had parents. And this led to the realization that they themselves also had parents. And on and on way back to the dawn of what we know as “time”.
This led to the question of, okay so who were they? What did they do and why did they do it?
My questions were largely unanswerable.
This is where my imagination stepped in, aided by its good friend Wild Assumptions.
What a pair!
I’ve learned that my intuition often leads me right.
BUT NOT ALWAYS.
My intuition helped me locate a family grave I had never seen before and had only heard about in fits and starts.
I can’t think of any other examples.
Mostly I’ve learned I can be wrong a lot.
But I take joy in being corrected by those who know.
And I think for an interest to take root in historical things, a key ingredient may be the element of imagination.