Submitted by Hillary Mohaupt

I was sitting in the middle of the floor, somehow both in a beauty parlor, getting my hair painted pink, and also in the saferoom of a castle waiting out a raid by a greedy knight.

Imagination is, of course, a powerful, beautiful thing, and I was enjoying an afternoon in the living room with the kids I babysit. Zack was building a complex castle out of large, colorful cardboard blocks, and Abby was combing my hair with a doll's brush. Straddling these two separate worlds, I marveled at these kids' sense of their surroundings and of their mental power. This afternoon, the living room was a baseball diamond and a pirate ship, too, somehow among the puzzles and books and art supplies strewn across the floor. I am humbled by Zack and Abby's storytelling and I am grateful they let me take part, even though my adultifying brain has slowly stiffened into a mass that can no longer bend and twist the way theirs still can.

But… sitting on floor with them, I could almost feel the cool rock walls that shook with each invading cannon fire, and I could almost see my rosy coiffure in the imaginary mirror Abby presented me.

Almost…A powerful, beautiful, spiritual thing, I think.

Hillary is a senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. She is also a member of NNPCW's Coordinating Committee.