#4: The If Game

The (indoor) world is a much cleaner place thanks to the invention of vacuum cleaners. What if my Kobold VK200 took a holiday on the beach?

By writing «The If Game» in 1960, the storyteller Gianni Rodari (1920–1980) created a tool helping us to imagine impossible scenarios from a paradoxical reality. And it goes like this:

1. Pick a person, real or fictitious, or an object

2. Put her/it into a role of power

3. Imagine the outcome resulting from that scenario

I love the game. However, I am struggling.

You can’t possibly go wrong, can you?

It is either my lack of imagination or my fear of coming up with the wrong answer, perfectly knowing that there is no such thing.

So let’s try again…

If Shrek ran for president, the country’s national anthem would be farted.

If spiders were in charge, the world wide web would finally become reality.

If Snow White became Minister of Immigration, receiving a warm welcome at the border would be standard.

If Peter Pan was in charge of transportation, autonomous flying cars would be used for school transportation.

If Sourdough Starters governed the world, nobody would have to worry about not being fed daily.

It still doesn’t come naturally, but I can tell that imagination builds with exercise. And it’s fun!

I remember a time when I was still seriously unserious. Back in 1995, I spent a few months in a language school in Vancouver. Hitomi from Japan lived in the same house and went to the same school as me. She was rather shy and believed everything I said, which initially motivated me to come up with all sorts of unrealistic stories and ideas.

However, I felt bad about it over time, so I told her not to believe me anymore unless I explicitly mentioned that my story was true. I definitely pushed the envelope too far at the time.

For the sake of playing the if game, though, I have decided to consciously revive that long gone spirit of imagination.