"The Quality of Imagination" Brings Goodwill: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

"The quality of imagination." This phrase used by Jason Smith in his podcast Digital Jung: Living a Symbolic Life in a Technological Age--resonated with me. Everyone has an imagination, just as they have an intellect with reasoning skills. Although we think natural reasoning skills can be developed through education and practice, we don't usually think that about imagination. Imaginative skills can be developed through practice, which gives different people different qualities of imagination. Why are there no job listings seeking someone not only technically skilled but also skilled in imagination? 

Not only is a cultivated imagination be helpful to artistic types, but it also helps bring desperately needed goodwill into the world. Smith talks about this as "the sympathetic exercise of the imagination" as Arnold Bennett wrote in his 1911 meditation on Christmas, The Feast of St. Friend by Arnold Bennett

"He [Bennett] suggests a conscious and deliberate giving of oneself, a suspending of one's own point of view and an adoption of the point of view of the other. 'To increase your good will for a fellow creature it is necessary to imagine that you are he.'"

Imagination creates empathy. (So why don't HR job listings seek imaginative skills?) What better to bring light back into dark times? May your New Year be filled with imagination.