Truth or Imagination?

Hello, my dear colleague writers.

So, is it truth or imagination that moves you?

I faced this disjunctive when writing "The Shoplifter." Max, the main character, is forced to confront truth and imagination at some point in his life throughout the novel. Fiction writers deal with this conflict all the time.

But his dichotomy is also present in real life. Ah! We all, ordinary people throughout the times and cultures worldwide, have dealt, at least once, with either truth or imagination.

Truth is the burning arrow that pierces the heart in issues involving passion.

Imagination awakes doubts and so equally promotes love and crime.

And so, when facing a situation, would you appeal to truth or imagination?

To help you decide, allow me to clarify:

Truth is your best friend, although, at the same time, it is your worst enemy.

Imagination is your best friend, although, at the same time, it is your worst enemy.

We're reasonable animals. Cunning animals. Sometimes, we could be sensible animals. And yet, we're animals with imagination, making us react and transform ourselves into angels or monsters, from lambs to wolves. Hence, we suffer and, consequently, make others suffer.

In this human frame, imagination can become our worst enemy because it cuts our reasoning.

Truth has one dimension only. It is manageable. It has a certain plasticity. A rigid truth doesn't exist. We can work on it, in it, around it, make it palatable, sweeten it, and swallow it without even having the time to chew on it. We can give truth a shape as we do with the dough. Indeed, truth is so malleable that imagination can create it, which is a trap we constantly fall into.

Imagination has several dimensions and can create truth in any of them and divulge it accordingly. Hence, it's a problem because we must recognize the truth's true essence. Thus, imagination is tricky, elusive, unreachable, and unmanageable.

And so, we can control truth, but not imagination.

Yet, we can become prisoners of truth and still feel free.

But we can also become prisoners of imagination and still feel free, although free in other worlds where other realities exist.

Truth shows us one road, and this is it.

Imagination shows us thousands of roads and paths that can take us to labyrinths where we can lose ourselves forever.

Truth keeps us attached to ourselves, our world, our reality,

And it's never for us to accept it because we cannot tame imagination.

Truth comes from our external world. We can ignore it conveniently.

Conversely, imagination comes from our internal world. We cannot ignore it. It governs us. Rules us.

Imagination is in us. It's a worm that won't let us sleep, eat, or be ourselves because we are all just imagination, not truth.

Truth feeds in facts, cold facts.

Imagination, on the other hand, is hot. It feeds on fear, curiosity, passion, and action.

And so, which one are you better acquainted with, truth or imagination?