What does imagination have to do with keeping lists? Nothing and everything. The nothing part is easy. A list is simply a list, a series of directives that someone, somewhere has to carry out, that is unless they lose their list in which case they fall to the ground, and either continue to lie there, despondent, or get up, dust themselves off, and carry on. If they choose to do the latter they make a new list.

Today I do not have an actual list. I have been creating one in my head and following it. This is because I am visiting my sister. Pretty soon she will return from doing errands and continue to knock things off her list. We are both going to San Francisco – she’s a few days behind me in taking care of things.

At the top of my list is write about the I word. Imagination popped in my head, like a kernel of popcorn. And like a piece of popcorn, it seems to have an infinite number of sides.

I just finished reading the book Joan of Arc by Vita Sackville West – she was a contemporary of Virginia Wolfe. My father sent me the book before he died. It took a few years, but I finally got to reading it. I previously knew nothing about Saint Joan of Arc. Now I know a great deal more. And I, of course, now presume that I always knew what I now know.

Across from El's place

It is a rather grim book – very dark, hard for me to read. I almost bypassed reading about her trail and execution. But had I done this, I would not have gotten to the best part of the book, which is the end, in which Sackville West speculates about what prompted Joan of Arc to act the way she did. That is, the voices.

Sackville West seems to think that the voices arose from the subconscious. And in the subconscious, resides (my words) the core of our being. Furthermore, the thoughts of the subconscious can be accessed by the conscious – and those who have the ability to readily do this are geniuses. This core, it could have spiritual connections. I had never thought of this before.

The imagination comes into play when one takes that which rises from the subconscious, and, in a manner of speaking, runs with it. Build it and they will come. Kitty corner to my sister’s place they are constructing a large apartment complex. It is about as unattractive as they can make it. But, someone, somewhere, saw that corner and thought – there’s a large enough site in which to construct a large ugly building. It will be a money maker, prior to, during, and after its construction. This is an example of the power of the human imagination.

Now, I am sure that in relation to this project, lists abound. Some things to do have been written down and some have not. I wish I had it in me to go and ask the construction workers if they keep written lists or if they just know what to do. If I lived here, I would have documented the process. I guess it is just enough to say that this not so imaginative project was fueled by someone’s imagination.

Onward, to other thoughts about listing.

Next: April 18, 2018: The ABC’s of Listing: J is for Joint Efforts