For some time now, Jane and I have been pondering
a quality that we’ve noticed that some people have and some don’t. While
we could easily agree on which of the people we know have it and which don’t,
we’d been quite incapable of putting a name to it, and so for a long time
we referred to it as “that quality that some people have and some don’t.”

Oh, there were symptoms we could point to. I have a much easier time
talking with people who possess this quality. They get my jokes. More
to the point, they can tell when I’m joking and when I’m not. They are
easy to talk to, because they are quick to see the implications of things
they or other people say. They seem to have brighter eyes than other
people. They tend to have a way of
looking beyond the surface of things from a sideways direction that
manifests itself in quips and
humorous asides. Usually, they aren’t benign. (I don’t mean to imply
that, being “not benign”, they must therefore be malign. It’s just like
when C.S. Lewis
says of Aslan that he’s not a tame lion.
Aslan isn’t benign. Neither are any of the members of my family.)
People who have “it” tend to be clever and innovative, and good at
solving problems. Not all of the software engineers I know have it–but
the best ones all do.

On the other hand, there are some things that clearly are not part of
this quality. Intelligence, to begin with: I know many extremely bright
people who don’t have “it”. And amiability for another: I know dozens of
very nice, friendly people who don’t have “it”, whatever “it” is.

But Jane and I were out on a date the other night, and as we were waiting
for our table we were discussing a person of our acquaintance who
manifestly doesn’t have “it”. And I happened to say, “And of course she
has no imagination whatsoever.” Jane agreed, and in a sudden rush of
insight I said, “That’s it! That’s the quality that some people have and
some don’t! Imagination!”

That bald statement probably doesn’t convey the depth of excitement I
felt as that word snapped into place. And after we’d gone through our
lists people of who do and don’t have “it” and had agreed that “imagination”
was the mot juste, I realized that I’d often seen the word used
just that way–in books. How often have you read about one character
who comments about another something like, “He’s an outstanding
officer–but he has no imagination at all.” It’s the ability to look at
things from more than direction: to move beyond the obvious answer, and
pick up the situation in your head and turn it around.

Usually when one person calls another imaginative, they mean that
either the second person writes fiction, or simply daydreams a lot–two
things the speaker never does himself. I’m not sure that imagination in
that sense is quite what I’m talking about–but perhaps it is, especially
the daydreaming part. But more on that later.