Voices: Practical Magic
Tell the average 21st Century American that you believe in magic and they'll probably advise you to seek psychiatric care. It's easy to brush off the existence of magic with a disrespectful sneer and a grumbling comment about "new age crap."
Yet before science forever altered our belief in miracles, we knew that they were not only possible, but common, everyday occurrences. Once upon a time, magic was taken seriously - revered by all those who didn't fear it.
Perhaps it's just the Halloween air getting to me, but I've been thinking about magic a lot lately. I've long envied the wonder with which my children experience the world and have finally come to the conclusion that the world can seem magical to me, too. If only I choose to let go and believe.
I'm not talking about abracadabra phenomenon or spells that will win you the love you've been lusting. The magic I've decided to embrace is the everyday magic we find so easy to ignore in our quest for sophistication. It is ignorance that breeds apathy: it is only after the world ceases to fascinate us that we cease to care about it. We race from the job that we hate, but that pays the bills, to the family that too-often either doesn't appreciate us or annoys us. We allow the starker realities of life to take the joy out of living.
Dramatic artists talk about "the magic of live theatre" all the time. I never took the phrase literally before, yet the exchange of emotion and energy that occurs between an audience and an effective performance is indeed a miraculous treasure. It alone frequently motivates artists toward the creation of masterpieces. The phenomenon of laughter is something that science can't adequately explain (if it can, please humor me and don't send the details to my attention). Smiles are contagious. One person's bad mood can rub off on another. It's all magic and it's all wonderful. Responsibility, habit and all other excuses aside, it's the possibility of magic (whether you choose to call it that or not) that gets most of us out of bed in the morning.
What 's most wonderful is that you don't have to sit passively and wait for magic to come and find you. You can create it and you don't need some 500 year old book of spells to do so. Magic is the gift you give by actively listening to another person instead of nodding along while listening instead to your own inner dialogue. It can be found whenever you look without fear into the eyes of the person standing before you. Magic is the inevitable bi-product of a song that moves someone to cry or to dance. It is magic that brings on a flood of memories from childhood when a specific fragrance provokes our sense of smell.
Magic is born when you realize the lesson you didn't expect to learn day but have been altered by nonetheless. It exists in the instincts that overcome us for no logical reason. It is the often-cursed phenomenon that attracts women and men to the lovers that will break their hearts instead of those who will strengthen them. It is the thrill of bringing another person pleasure without demands or expectations of receiving anything in return. It is the joy of having one's words remembered.
Magic lives in the flowers of kindness and generosity that refuse to be taken over by the weeds of cruelty and violence. Magic is about finding hope and joy in the darkest moments of struggle. It's about allowing oneself to plunge without fear into the unknown. Whenever we take the risk and wager that there's as much pleasure waiting to be discovered out there as there is discomfort, we allow ourselves to be touched by a new miracle.
Still don't believe in magic? What would you say is behind that moment when the words come together in just the right way and I am not only express my ideas clearly but with some sense of grace. Talent? Skill? You said it, not me. But I'd still rather savor the mystery, no matter how silly it seems.
Science is well on its way to solving every last mystery known to humankind. My guess is that after science uncovers the final truth, the last lesson left for us to learn will be that the truth is more mystifying than any myth ever crafted. You could simply call that irony, but I'm ready to credit a phenomenon just a little more supernatural.
-- alicia grega-pikul, 24 October 2002
