WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK
What good is imagination? Does it treat wounds? Does it build roads? Does it cure diseases? Does it put food on the table? Does it raise children? Does it teach truth? Some might say No to all these questions. I say Yes to every single one of them. “Brain Wrecks” says Yes to imagination.
Imagination is the lifeblood of awareness. An infant opens its eyes and its brain’s vision neurons begin their dance. Our perceptions of this world change our brains, choosing which neurons will live and thrive. As we grow, we act upon the world and it acts upon us, and we remember. We shape our inner reality. With our inner reality, we imagine the world around us. And then we change the world.
We tell stories in two ways. Our actions are stories all by themselves. A man walking in deep woods falls on a jagged stump, gashing his leg. Blood spurts from the wound. He fumbles to grip the source of the bleeding, and limps home. He finds a long rag, applies it as a tourniquet, and applies another cloth, soaked in alcohol, to bandage the gash. The bleeding subsides. He finds needle and thread, cleanses them, and opens the gash enough to sew shut the damaged blood vessel. Then he sews the wound shut, and replaces the bandage. Now there is time for him to find a doctor. When he does, he tells this whole story, and the doctor says, “You did well to survive and get here. Now I can do my job.”
So that was a story just now told, written from a writer’s memory and imagination, explaining emergency wound treatment. Everyone has real-life stories: How we built a road. How we cured smallpox. How we grew these fruit trees.
One might object. “These are all about real life actions! What about imaginary things like unicorns and fairies and castles in the air? They have nothing to do with real life!” But look into the human heart and mind. A wounded soul needs its own treatments to heal and thrive. Stories that draw a sufferer away from pain, or from shock and damage, give that sufferer a chance to heal and find help. Stories drawn from pure imagination can be the tourniquet, the bandage, and the needle to stanch the wounds of inner life.
Stories of imaginary worlds, mythical beings, and wondrous magic have consoled, comforted, validated, and healed countless souls down through all of human time. Stories are magic medicine for the soul. Here, now, the “Brain Wrecks” pharmacy is open for business.
