A few of the Oompa Loompas
Tonight I went to a middle school musical, Willy Wonka. My grandson was one of many in the Oompa Loompa Chorus. The Oompa Loompas, in case, like me you forgot, were the little people who ran Willy Wonka’s Candy Factory. Right at the beginning Willy Wonka sings a song about ‘Pure Imagination’ and states he has looking for a child to take over his famous candy factory.
This makes sense since children are best at imagination, a key element of being creative as Willy Wonka seems to be. Yet the factory he tours with five children and adults is full of technological gizmos. At the end of the tour the child from the poorest family living a very simple life is chosen to be Willie’s successor. At the end the hope is that this child can keep his imagination even with all the power and glory of owning this most famous candy factory.
I have witnessed my grandchildren, as all children, slowly lose some of their imaginations as they grow up. The wonder of nature, of playing with an empty box has been replaced by sports, good grades and countless activities. My youngest grandchild, only five, still can play the silly games that we make up with our imaginations. But this is also slowly fading away.
I know that in our American culture, especially with all of us living a comfortable lifestyle, there is not much left to the imagination. Even the sets for the play tonight, built by the parents, were excellent and real looking. In the world of ‘reality TV’ I guess there is not much room left for imagination.
I remember some years back when I was a youth minister and went with a group of teens to a very poor area of Appalachia. My job was to take the young children on long walks in the woods so the teens and the adults can get work done on the project. The children told me some wonderful tales, some of which I believed until I talked with their parents. However, I got back at them with a tale of how David Crocket got his coon skin hat that they believed.
I have many happy memories of playing with my grandchildren and other children using only our imaginations. As we grow older, the children and I, we lose our imagination. Nature helps to restore it but even my grandchildren, Graf Kids who live in a rural area, like kids in the city with comfortable income families, lose their imagination.
I do not think we really lose our imagination but it gets crusted over by heavy doses of reality. So to get our imagination back we need to ask: “Where does our imagination go?”
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