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Opinions of Sunday, 14 May 2017

Columnist: Prince Ampofo

Imagine that

Children relate with ordinary things using wild imaginations Children relate with ordinary things using wild imaginations

Mother sends son on an errand. To her next door should take less than 30 minutes. Son turns up after over an hour. He is 7 years old. This was no simple task. To understand him you have to be in his world.

What you call a gutter and potholes, were a series of valleys and trenches he had to carefully descend. What you call a staircase, to him was a mountain his faith did not move. He had to climb. He destroyed Mojo Jojo because the Powerpuff Girls were napping. He fought Mandark because Dexter was consumed with his inventions. Even Kwaku Ananse tried playing tricks on him.

Mom thinks he's being silly as he tells this story. So he gets beaten for verbally justifying his 'imaginative' accomplishments. Mom forgets that all her treasures in the kitchen, wardrobe and in fact her life were born out of 'silly' imaginations.

Imagine if there were no phones, cars....knives, swords. Apostle Peter wouldn't have had one to cut the bread... I mean the ‘ear'. The first time I boarded a plane, all the physics I knew did not matter. This was me strapped to the seat with eyes wide open. Someone imagined this? Powerful!

Today more powerful is the reality that we can sit in our bedroom and travel across the world in seconds on another revolutionary imagination-produced vehicle we call the Internet. I agree with you! Mom should let him be. She should allow him dream on with the pictures in his mind. It could one day produce what will pay his bills the rest of his life and more importantly give meaning to another life. The limitations of a person are the imaginations his mind will not permit his heart to believe.

Now where's my googaa? And if you don't understand that watch this movie and thank me later!

Keep faith alive. #PALMinistry ---

Prince Ampofo is an author, leadership coach and lay minister who has over the past seven years engaged in youth development in nine out of ten regions in Ghana. He is founder of PALMinistry, a vehicle for Christian leadership development in Ghana. Prince is Program Coordinator of Databank Foundation. You may reach him via prinampofo@palministry.org