Reimagining Words and Ideas

I’m always fascinated by the concept of words. A word is an arbitrary thing or symbol used to stand in for an item, concept, idea, person, place, or whatever else. Words are nothing more than a sound that you make or a few markings you write down, yet they describe whatever it is you have in mind. For example, if I say the word water, you’ll think of the liquid that provides life to us all, right? Well, the word itself means nothing. “Water” doesn’t mean anything. It’s just the sound/symbols used to represent that liquid which we all know represents life. So, a lot of the concepts out there differ so much from one person to the next because of our experiences and what we have come to know. If I say to picture a mug, you may think of something which we drink coffee and tea out of.

Now think of something that actually does have the same object pop into mind consistently each and every time you hear it. I want you to picture the word cardboard. Almost always, you’ll think of a box made of cardboard. Perhaps the box has been broken down into flats. Nonetheless, you’ll think of that box. Very rarely will someone think of a cardboard tube that holds posters.

And that’s something I wanted to discuss. Did you know that cardboard can range from round to long and cylindrical? And they can even be highly specialized for specific purposes.

For example, we have candy boxes specifically for pieces of chocolate that are packaged in a way for each confectionary to have its own little spot in the box. The last thing you’d think of when I say the word cardboard boxes is something that holds candy in little spots designated for the chocolates, right?

So the next time you’re told to picture a word or phrase, push yourself to think outside the box. If you hear cardboard, try to warp your mind’s visual representation to something weird or wacky. Yes, candy boxes are quite a bit different than most people would imagine, but they’re still cardboard boxes. Instead, what about cardboard art? Or cardboard animals (instead of balloon animals)? This is a great mental exercise for training yourself to think of things in a new perspective, and you may even have a novel idea spring forth because of it.