My parents bought me this book when I was in preschool.
I loved it! And spend hours turning lines into animals, like this scary dragon. Boo!
For my 5th birthday, my aunt gave me this book, and I love it, too!
I took it everywhere, pored over the pictures, got lost in them, even, for hours on end.
I knew they weren't real, born only in someone's head.
I was fascinated, curious, excited.
I could read pictures far better than words!
Storytime was never the same. Words were never enough.
I wanted pictures. I needed pictures, I was totally and completely madly in love with pictures.
I had no need to read (That's what older sisters are for.)
I had no need to write. (That's what parents are for.)
But I did have a need to dream, to wonder, question, explore, discover the world around me and within.
That's what imagination, creativity, visual thinking is for.
Using pictures seen only in the mind's eye, or with doodles, drawings, murals, diagrams, sketches, illustrations
To understand, create, synthesize, tell stories, solve problems, determine next steps, find the big picture and see it clearly
Regardless of language, race, education, gender, age
In order to make difficult, positive, personal, professional, social, global change happen
Changing the world, our world, your world, your life
Making your life better, bigger, bolder, brighter, an adventure...
An adventure is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose.
Falling in love has been called the supreme adventure, but to some extent we choose, even judge, before falling or jumping into love...In this degree, the supreme adventure is not falling in love. The supreme adventure is being born.*
Visual thinking has chosen us.
Choose to fall in love with it because we are born to question, explore, discover the world around us and within
Both with our eyes and through our eyes, with our heads and through our hearts, with our whole brain and through our whole brain.
Our brains, our souls, our children, our leaders, I, you think in pictures.
Even if you don't own a camera. Even if you don't own a pencil. Even if you know nothing about art.
Fall in love with pictures.
Think with pictures.
Slay your dragons. (Boredom, miscommunication, fuzzy thinking)
And live the supreme adventure, your supreme adventure to the fullest.
*Chesterton, G.K. (1905). Heretics. New York, NY: John Lane Company.