THE MAGIC OF IMAGINATION
In "The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling" podcast, JK Rowling tells of her 2008 commencement speech to the graduating class of Harvard, at the zenith of her popularity.
While I've never read a Harry Potter book (I know, I know...), the podcast is excellent, and the bits she shares about the role of imagination felt so aligned with the work that SUBLIMITY does that it sent me back to the whole of her speech.
I love much about the speech, but especially this bit:
"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared."
Precisely so. In fact, we do the gift of imagination a great injustice if we simply limit it to imagining what the future might bring.
Far more important is the role of the imagination in fully grasping - as fully alive human beings - what's true right now.
As Malcolm Guite says, "the imagination is a truth-bearing faculty".
As nonprofit marketers and fundraisers, we do well to inform our supporters and prospects about how people are hurting and need our help.
But we do so much better to fire their imaginations to begin to fully grasp, in their minds' eye, what it must be like to be one of those hurting people.
Documentary content. Spatial storytelling. Interactive participation. Physical experiences. These are the ways to emotionally grip people such that they not only grasp what's factually true, but they realize, for themselves, that they simply must help.
But only after you get to know your audience in meaningful ways. As people. That comes first.
(And we love to help with all of this!)
