So the Olympics are on, as they are known to do every other year, and I was entranced by the phrase “captured the imagination of the nation”. Firstly, my education has shown me how terrible the Olympics can be, and now, I find nothing captivating about them. Jaded and cynical, I know, but true none-the-less. But my English minor has shown me the problem with the phrase itself. Imaginations cannot be captured. In fact, that is probably the best thing about imaginations. They can be spurred or scorned maybe, but definitely not captured. Yet there is still something that happens when the Olympics roll around. Something does happen within the imagination, and it is valuable.

In some ways, Mirror Lake was born out of the imagination, but it also acts on the imagination as well, in a kind of Durkheimian way. There is some connection between the damning of Stony Creek, the person that clears the lake for skating every year, and the millions of dollars spent maintaining the lake itself. There is some connection between the people that live here, the people that lived here, and the people that will live here. Somehow, it all goes in and out of the imagination. It is my hope that while I will not be able to capture it, I may be able to express it. Or at least, hint at it. The early archival work we have done has at least shown me that there is a connection, and now the work to come will be to try and expose and express that connection in a way that is understandable, applicable, and genuine (also, hopefully hilarious, but we will see.)

I started this course intrigued. It has begun to blossom into excitement. So now I am going to strap some wings on this turd and see if it will fly.