The Power of Abstract Thinking

It’s easier than you think.

Photo by Ehsan from Pexels

I tell myself that my imagination is a superpower.

In some other world, maybe I would be able to make specters and creatures climb from the depths of my very thoughts. I would have an arsenal of otherworldly beings ready to go forth with one slight tilt of my head — one whisper of the synapses firing in my brain.

But I don’t live in a fantastical realm. My medium for magic is paper and pen — or, more often these days, screen and keyboard. If I can spin the thing with words, then all the more power to me.

Solutions to life’s blunders don’t come as easily. I can always scribble out a mistake on a sheet of paper. But real life doesn’t have an eraser or a backspace button. In the waking world, all I have is what my two hands can do — or what becomes of my actions and their repercussions.

I had a recent run-in at work where I threw out boxes in the wrong garbage area (in my defense, there were no signs), and the manager of the facilities department gave one of my supervisors a chewing-out. I owned up to it — “It was my fault” — but I couldn’t help looking at this woman, who was so bothered by something so minute, and wondering what her inner life was like. In truth, I wonder this same thing about many people I meet. I cannot see what invisible…