光─今天特別明亮。暴風雨過後天空清澈乾淨，幾乎是種魔法。看來是完美的一天。這讓我想到一個問題：時間的道路上，什麼是重要的元素？如果今天是我生命最後一天，我會選擇怎麼度過？雖然是個深刻的問題，但我相信我們的答案都非常簡單，或說出於本能。我們會想和家人朋友一同度過，聊聊自己的想法或生命的意義。我自己的話會想怎麼過呢？
首先我想說明，對我而言完美的一天分為兩個場景，一個適用於冬天，一個適用於夏天。
完美的冬天會由一場清晨的散步或慢跑揭開序幕，感受著室外環境的銳度。住過寒冷北方國家（像是波蘭或加拿大）的人就知道，冷冽的空氣會像把刀一樣劃進臉頰與喉嚨，令人精神振奮但又有點駭人。接著我會回家來碗加了黑糖的熱騰騰燕麥片。一邊吃早餐一邊啜飲深烘焙黑咖啡：絕妙。接著是工作：勞力必然不可間斷。我會仔細編輯自己的文思，直到能完美呈現為止。接下來與我敬愛的人一起享用輕食午餐。餐後靜靜冥想一番，然後小憩一會兒。同一群好友們圍繞家中的火爐，大家享用著自助式餐點配著飲料，替我的一天畫下句點。讀著我最喜歡的書，在幾個章節之後沉沉睡去。
理想的夏天場景就有點不同。早晨在健身房的運動會更起勁。運動完騎單車回家，沖涼後來份英式早餐。早餐應該在一家有趣的餐廳或店家享用。吃完後騎車帶著我的筆記本到大公園或親近自然之處，因為我發現在這裡思緒如湧泉般源源不絕，能探究無窮的智慧。想法誕生了之後，我會回家寫作、反思。緊接著到類似毗鄰加拿大史丹利公園的西維亞飯店享用早午餐。身旁會有我不熟識的人，也有我愛的人。我們聊著生命的意義，畢竟我快來到盡頭了。午餐就這樣持續到下午。接著我去上課，將時間貢獻給有意義的機構。回到家時時間已經很晚，我便一人獨處，在孤寂中我與我永恆的神─如哲學家Martin Buber所形容的─能夠和平相處。最後即是我寧靜的睡去，留下有限的身軀。
這是生命結束的想像，但其實更重要的是每天如何過生活。在這個世紀，組成生命最重要的元素是想像力。如果無法培養運用想像力，那我們就只能向生命投降，成為薪資奴隸。
作家暨學者Jon Rappoport在其文章《Beyond Mind Control》中曾提到：「想像力沒有界限，是冒險與探索的根源。它的確能對物質世界產生強大衝擊，但我們不能因此說它是一種物質或能量。想像力並非物質。思考能帶來一些想像，然後我們便會強加上一些限制，這是不對的。想像力並不會遵從任何物理法則。若模仿是最真摯的奉承，那我們奉承現實已夠久了，不需要繼續下去。想像力能創造新的現實。如果不斷重複一件事，最終你可能活得像張桌子。將想像力注入其中，事情就會有所轉變。由你掌舵，這艘船能到達任何你想去的地方。
最糟的情況是缺乏想像力。大家都沒意見，每個人都覺得無聊，人人都服從。另外存在著一群人，不斷有創新的作品，豐富的創意有如日出般稀鬆平常。坐在宇宙中某個公車站等著現實到來本身就是現實。其餘的就是想像力。」
想像力是生活各層面都需要的，無論是身心理或精神上。我們所面臨的問題僅能透過創造性與變通的思維來解決。喜好衝突的軍事工業情結必須消失，世界才得以和平。英國作家王爾德曾說：聖人和罪人的唯一區別是，每一個聖人都有過去，而每一個罪人都有未來。
本週散心時，也想想你的現在，與充滿變化的未來吧。
每天試著尋找生活中神奇、美麗的事物。
Light: today there was so, so much light. A storm had just passed so the air was clear and clean — almost magical. It was, seemingly, a perfect day. This led me to the question, “What would constitute my perfect passage of time?” “If this were to be my last day of life, how would I want to spend it?” Though appearing to be profound, the answer for all of us, I think, is extremely simple: some would say plebian. We would want to spend time in the company of family and friends, discussing ideas and the meaning of life itself. Then on a personal note, what would my day look like?
I would firstly have to comment that my perfect day includes two different scenarios: one for winter and the cooler months and one for summer and the warmer months.
My perfect winter day would commence with an early morning walk or run to feel the sharpness on the outside, what I would label my external milieu. Anyone who has lived in cooler northern countries like Poland or Canada knows that the crisp air is analogous to a hundred knives being embedded in your face and throat: exhilarating, but also a bit frightening. I would then return home to a bowl of hot oatmeal covered in brown sugar. I would eat my breakfast while sipping a cup of dark roast coffee: scrumptious. Now to work: I would most certainly be laboring on a project. I would edit and re-edit my thoughts, aspiring to achieve some level of excellence. A light lunch would follow surrounded by the people that I love and respect. In the early afternoon I would meditate and take a short nap. My day would close with the same friends seated around a raging fireplace: drinks accompanied by a buffet-style dinner. Finally, a deep sleep would follow, after several chapters of my favorite book.
My summer day would be quite different. My exercise routine would be more strenuous and at my gym. I would then cycle back home, shower and prepare for an English breakfast. This would be eaten in some interesting restaurant or culinary venue. I would then take my notebook and walk or cycle to a large park or nature reserve. I find that here in a semi-rural environment the ideas just flow like a raging freshet, seeking the sea of infinite wisdom. With the ideas that I have gleaned, I would return home to write and reflect. Brunch would follow in an elegant boutique hotel: similar to the Sylvia, adjacent to Stanley Park. I would be seated with strangers and loved ones: the topic being the meaning of life — to be fair, I am shortly to take my celestial journey. Le “repas de midi” would finish rather late in the early evening. I would then go and teach or donate my time to some meaningful organization. Arriving home quite late, I would be alone; the solitude would allow me to come to peace with my “I and eternal Thou,” a relationship circumscribed byMartin Buber. A peaceful sleep would subsequently arrive, I having come to terms with my physical mortality.
This is the closing of a life: much more important, however, is the living side of life itself. In our century, the most important component of life is imagination. If we fail to develop it and then use it we will be subjected to life as a wage slave. Writer and intellectual Jon Rappoport in his article Beyond Mind Control has an interesting thought, “Imagination, which knows no bounds, is the source for the most adventurous explorations.
It can have great impact on the material world, of course, but one mustn’t therefore conclude it is composed of matter or energy. Imagination is non-material. To think otherwise winds you up in using some version of physics to depict imagination — and then you are imposing limits on it. This is an error. Imagination doesn’t obey any laws of physics. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we’ve flattered reality enough: it doesn’t need any more. Imagination creates new realities. You can create the same thing over and over, and eventually you’ll be about as alive as a table. Inject imagination into the mix, and everything suddenly changes.
You can steer that boat anywhere you want to. The lowest common denominator of consensus implies an absence of imagination. Everyone agrees; everyone is bored; everyone is obedient. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are massive floods of unique individual creation, and then that sought-after thing called abundance is as natural as the sun rising in the morning. Sitting around in a cosmic bus station waiting for reality is what reality is. Everything else is imagination.”
Certainly imagination is what is called for in all aspects of life: physical, spiritual and psychological. The strife covering our Earth can only be solved through inventive and dynamic thinking. The military–industrial complex, that so loves conflict, must be neutered if the world is to have peace. The great intellectual, polemicist and aesthete Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) leave us with a thought: The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
This week on your inspirational walk, please reflect on the present and on your dynamic future.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.