Disney Imagineering is the company’s think-tank full of super-creative designers, storytellers, and engineers who dream up theme parks, resorts, and attractions. All projects go through a crucible of development phases before they’re deemed ready for the public. During the first phase, everyone is encouraged to think outside the box and develop ideas that know no bounds. This phase has been dubbed the Blue Sky phase.
In subsequent phases, constraints like time, manpower, budget, et cetera come into play and those blue sky concepts get reined in. But the final ideas, the ones that make it to market, are always robust and richly textured because they started from that place of infinite possibility associated with What If… as opposed to the constraint and judgment of Not That…
Here’s an question for you—
How much better would humanity be if we incorporated a little Blue Sky thinking and optimism into our social intercourse?
What if we figured out that two people can experience the same situation; and each interpretation can be both valid and honest?
What if we accepted the fact that attentiveness to another person’s plight is the prerequisie to advocacy, not total understanding?
What if we swapped out our meaningless thoughts and prayers for authentic acts of respect and care?
What if we related to one another as equals, and not as superiors versus subordinates?
What if we valued the things that make us different instead of fearing them?
What if we extended the same measure of “benefit of the doubt” to one another we so readily demand for ourselves?
What if we realized that we all want the same things: to be accepted, to be understood, and to be loved?
The possibilities are endless.
Love one another.
