Looking for Magic

When you look for magic, you find it everywhere. You don’t need to define it, and yet you may try. We support trying. Take a moment with your pen and write down things you think are magic on the very last page of a notebook. Think of at least five, if not ten. Use descriptive language so any reader could understand what you think is magic, and why. Refer to it as you read this and then again when you get done reading. Bet it’s changed, and there’s your first magic, right here at the start. Yet don’t we know in our hearts that the secret stuff is numinous and seems likely to lie beyond our language skills, as well as beyond our comprehension in so many ways? The part that we see is a glimmer, not unlike when the sun is reflecting off far-off waves at sea, more than a mile away, and we watch for those flashes—partly because they may indicate shoals and reefs (always of interest at sea), and partly because it is a flash of sunlight concentrated and blasted sideways to find our eye, and (depending on how far we want to go with quantum physics in everyday life) we are an absolutely essential part of this flashy and magical moment, we see it and we make it, the glimmer, the awesome wonder, the overarching mystery that surrounds and uplifts us, set on the eternally enchanting sea. Isn’t that right? 

Someone says that Einstein (a notoriously bad sailor) said “There are only two ways to look at the world. Either everything is a miracle, or nothing is a miracle, and I recommend the former viewpoint.” Or was that Oppenheimer? No, he was the chap who became Death, the Destroyer of Worlds after he figured out how to destroy worlds—lots of fun at parties. Speaking of which, perhaps it was that wet-blanket Carl Sagan, the learned astronomer, who said “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs”? Oh yeah? Prove it! But wait. Was that actually said by the safe-cracking/bongo-playing physicist Richard Feynman? Or did he say we should break everything down to its most basic components before we try to explain it to anyone? For that matter, was it Schrödinger who said “The total number of minds in the universe is one”? Or was that Paul on the road to Damascus trying to make sense of his interrupted journey? Was it Warren Zevon who said “enjoy every sandwich”? Did Bernard of Clairveaux say “What does it matter, in light of eternity”? Are you seeing the magic? How has your thinking changed just now? Make a note.