I love magic. I love being surprised, and I like not knowing how the illusion is done. I like magicians and their flare and the sense of impossible. I love magic, but I don’t believe in it.
I have seen what appears to be magic happen in my life and the lives of people around me. I have watched folks do the work and achieve the results, and to those who missed the effort, it seems like an overnight mystical success. I have watched friends recover from an illness because they followed the regimen of the medical profession and made a severe lifestyle change. Seven years ago, running a 10k race was an illusion, yet I will run two or three this year.
I have seen more amazing sunsets than I deserve and now understand enough of the science to realize there isn’t a master magician making artwork. My jaw has drooped in surprise when something fortuitous happens because I have a basic understanding of odds and the laws of large numbers.
I have mused about Maslow and the infamous pyramid. I theorized that Maslow and the pyramid are right even if how we use it was never the intention. I frequently intone that the pyramid is upside down and if we achieve self-actualization, the rest fills magically. Here I use it to mean as part of a logical and challenging process. When we realize the fulfillment of our talents and potentialities, we have all the tools necessary to achieve safety, security, health and wealth according to our needs and desires. It may seem magical to those observing from afar, but it is indeed part of intentionality.
Just like a magic trick, all these shifts seem impossible to the audience, but the magician has worked hard to make it happen. Unlike a trick, we can benefit from seeing behind the curtain when people seemingly work magic in their lives.
B
The Cultural Curiosity Daily will be a hodgepodge on some days and a treatise on others. If you are entertained, provoked, inspired, edified or angered by any of it you can respond with comments and as always you can ‘buy me a coffee.‘