|
Magic
NMB, Florida January 12, 2002 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
MAGIC
Most of us believe in magic. No, it is not the kind of prestidigitation
that "magicians" use. That is trickery. The practitioner of slight of hand
or elaborate preparations tries to hide this. These are magicians we all
know and are glad to be part of their acts. But there is another kind of
magic that exists in all of us and it is not of the "black" or "evil" kind
you may think exists. The latter does not exist except in our minds.
In fact, our minds are the greatest facilitators of magic that can be
found. We believe, therefore it is. This is a simple statement and it
includes a world of experience. The magician can use our eyes and ears to
believe that unbelievable things happen. We see something and hear
something and therefore it exists. But, we are willing to believe many
impossible things.
Mostly, our minds tell us things we WANT to believe. We are in need of
belief that things will happen that will make things better. We appeal
sometimes to GOD or rub a rabbit's foot or squeeze some other talisman in
which we invest great powers and ask for deliverance, or change or winning
or something like that.
Magic is the belief that you can do what experience tells you, your best
friend tells you and all your experience with your parents tells you cannot
be done. Yet you believe that it will happen - magically. We do this when
we buy lottery tickets or scream at a fight or game of sport. Our side will
win and therefore, we win.
I have suspended belief in magical things. I don't subscribe to them
anymore. I once thought that impossible things could happen because I
needed them to happen. It doesn't work that way. Instead we suspend
DISBELIEF and we have a great need to do this many times.
Let me explain it to you in this way. We really need to have magical
things happen or otherwise our world would be so mysterious that we would
have to resort to spells, curses, incantations and the like. Well, I guess
they couldn't hurt. Carol didn't like this one either.
|
 |
|