Daydreaming is amazingly useful. No matter what teachers and bosses and impatient parents may have said over the years (never to me, of course, wink-wink), that pleasant fugue state of seemingly purposeless internal wandering is where a great deal of terrific, very purposeful invention and problem-solving happens. It takes us to inner regions where we are unencumbered by rules, editing, and logic, and can let the what-ifs of experiment and hope play together until, sometimes, they produce brilliant results that endless hours and years of study and labor might never have fostered. How can we expect to engender anything grand if we don’t aim for the seemingly impossible?
Consistent study and labor are, of course, quite necessary if we are to be able to even conceive of what exists and how we intend to alter it; to begin with no facts, no tools, no notions of probability or potential will inevitably leave us puzzling fruitlessly for ages before we ever approach a fantastic and outlandish idea, let alone a useful one. But once the seeds have been sown, we can’t assume that there would be no purpose in additional time and imagination spent on divining what to do when they begin to grow as well. The dreamers of the world have nurtured at least as much meaningful and helpful stuff as the mere scientists and scholars and brawny-brained geniuses have done, but with less hoopla, and it seems to me that we should be wary of working too hard to bring fantasists down to earth too soon.
Assume, when you see me in an apparently abstracted slide toward the comatose, that I am in fact inwardly journeying toward a dazzling insight or earthshaking invention or two, and leave me in peace. I shall emerge, in due time, bearing the harvest of this grand exploratory trip. Or at least I’ll have had a refreshing nap. I’ll happily leave it to you to determine the value of the difference, if any, between the two eventualities.
Art-Colored Glasses 
My older brother, as a child, used to get busted all the time for day dreaming. He is now one of the international leaders in eye research, on the verge of finding a cure for macular degeneration and blindness. He still ‘day dreams’, in middle of board meetings no less, so his secretary tells me!!!!
Maybe there’s some hope for me, then. 😉 Not that I’ll ever be that accomplished, but at least that my meandering mind might produce *something* useful. *Eventually*. 😀
xo
What the world has called day dreaming I call purposeful reflection (at least while I do it). And as you say, it is quite restful to body and mind.
I still like to call it (optimistically, of course) “research” and hope that someone will buy that. 😉
I wish you all the best with this inwardly journeying toward a dazzling insight you are taking on. And of course you are right, how else can we come up with new insight and new ideas? Great post – and great images. I particularly like the last one.
Chances are pretty good that *my* daydreaming will never produce anything more useful than personal contentment and happiness, but honestly, I think those are pretty underrated gifts nowadays anyway! I’m very pleased you enjoyed the images, too. Hope you’re doing well and having time to do a little fanciful mental wandering yourself, Otto. 🙂
xo
to daydreaming, imagination and all flights of fancy! 🙂
Yes, please, and may we *all* get plenty of them!! 😀
Your post made me nostalgic for those day-dreaming days gone by. These days, I’m much less likely to catch myself drifting away, as my mind seems to be always whirring and clanking along, but every now and then, it does get deliciously quiet, and I lean into the drift, and disappear.
I hereby give you permission to dedicate all necessary time to that life-saving skill of drifting that you might need. Your gifts for writing and sharing your wisdom deserve to be nurtured thus, and I’m always grateful for the outcome. xo