Consolation of Imagination

I attended the Arizona Kidney Foundation’s Authors Luncheon a few weeks ago. Though all the authors spoke about their books and told stories to captivate the audience, only the words of Gregory Macguire, the author of Wicked, stuck in my mind after the event. “Consolation of the imaginary is not imaginary consolation.” Throughout his speech or story rather, he reiterated the words probably about six times but from the moment he first said them I had already realized their importance.

While most adults grow up and consequently lose their imagination, the audience could tell through the author’s words, books and play he had done nothing of the sort. Instead, he had turned his imagination into millions of dollars. Though his style of writing is quite simple in comparison to all the other books out there, his dedication to imagination is what sets him apart from the rest of the world. Instead of giving a boring speech about his life and his inspiration, his story triggered the imaginations of his audience thus reiterating its importance. Instead of trying to impress the audience with his achievements, Macguire allowed his imagination to speak for itself. The story followed a group of kindergarten-age kids playing The Wizard of Oz (the inspiration behind his books) with a baby, who was cast as the Wicked Witch of the East. The game starts out fine with a few changes to the original script thanks to the children’s own ideas, but ends horribly when the baby gets stuck under the house and the mother is forced to pry her child out with a shovel. It’s a funnier story that I make it out to be. His speech made me laugh but also reaffirmed my belief in the importance of imagination. Even three weeks later, his quote won’t leave my mind. “Consolation of the imaginary is not imaginary consolation.” I thought this quote fit perfectly with the title of my blog, so tah-dah I thought I’d share. I’m obsessed with this quote and I think you should be too. (336)