When I was 4 or 5, I discovered that a toddler will run screaming out of the backyard toward the house if his big sister pretends something huge is chasing her.
(Do not try this at home.)
At that age, I didn’t even know I was doing anything wrong.
My brother still enjoys bringing up the subject from time to time. Along with a list of various other misdeeds from my days as an evil big sister.
I don’t deny any of it. Except for the part about making him eat dirt.
(He always throws that one in at the end of the litany, as an embellishment.)
And I never tell him he has a vivid imagination.
Not even about the dirt.
But there are people who love to accuse the other guy of having a vivid imagination, if the other guy recalls something negative about them.
Say I didn’t want to admit, or maybe even remember, that I routinely scared the mess out of my little brother in the backyard, just to see how he would react.
In that case, the conversation might go like this:
“Do you remember how you used to run screaming out of the backyard toward the house, like something was chasing us?”
“I don’t remember anything like that. You sure do have a vivid imagination.”
In this scenario, “You sure do have a vivid imagination,” can mean anything between “You are deluded” and “You are lying.”
It’s interesting that we hardly ever accuse someone of having a vivid imagination if they recall something good we did.
Even if we don’t remember it.
Such as, “Do you remember the time I dropped my ice cream cone at the fair and you gave me yours?”
In that case, we’re not likely to say, “No … you sure do have a vivid imagination.”
We’re more likely to feel pleased with ourselves, that we had done such a good deed.
It’s usually not easy to explain all this to somebody who made you eat dirt, and then accused you of having a vivid imagination.
First, you’d have to get them to listen.
But feel free to grab a handful of this week’s newspaper for future reference.
That way, you can stuff a copy of this column into their hand and tell them you’ve already read about them in the newspaper.
Julia Cochran is a licensed professional counselor in Rincon. She can be reached at 912-772-3072 or by email at JCochranPhD@GileadCounseling.com.