do you believe in magic?
I’ve never been one for magicians.
I’m not quite sure why.
I do love sleight-of-hand — the kind of thing David Blaine used to do before he went absolutely insane — and I love watching little kids go wide-eyed at a good trick, but I would never go out of my way to see a big magic show with people being cut in half and scarves being pulled out of ears and a girl in a sparkly bathing suit doing her best Vanna White.
I used to think it was because I hated illusion and the feeling seeing something that you know isn’t really happening… but then I discovered plumping lip gloss and that was that. Bring the illusion, I say!
I use the word magic all the time, though.
I love calling people magic when they do something amazing or lovely or utterly true.
I love calling a song magic if it thrills me to the core and forces me to dance and listen to it 10,000 times.
I love calling the weather magic if a thunderstorm is brewing, or the sky is cloudless or lit up with fire red and violet at the end of a summer day.
I love calling my laptop magic because, lo, it doth not crash.
I love calling pregnant women magic, because there is definitely a rabbit in THAT hat.
I love calling boys magic when they wear non-white socks.
I love calling the ocean magic because it does what it does and I never get sick of watching.
I love calling coffee magic… well, no, coffee is actually magic.
I love calling myself magic when I manage to make the perfect bernaise or find a new type of flip flop that is extra happy for my feet or actually get through a whole day without saying anything regrettable or injuring some part of my body.
I know my definition of magic is at odds with the true definition because all my “magics” are pretty attainable.
But then again, I figure that’s the best way to see it, after all.

June 28th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Heh, very interesting. My fiance is actually a professional magician, as in, that is his full-time job, so I find it interesting to hear what people have to say about magic. When I first met him and he originally told me he was a magician, I was all, “hmmmmmm… not sure what I think about this! Seen some pretty hokey magicians in my day!” But thankfully he’s actually REALLY GOOD so I don’t have to cringe, I can be really proud of him. Oh, he does the close-up stuff too (a la David Blaine pre-wacko phase).
I like your kind of magic too though :) And I agree, coffee is real magic. So are babies.
June 28th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Sigh! If only those babies “popped out” of the belly like the rabbits pop out of the hat. Wouldn’t that make things a whole lot easier?
(spoken from someone with labour in the near future - eeep!)
June 29th, 2007 at 1:00 am
I love calling chiropractors magic when they fix my back. And I love calling bloggers magic when their writing makes my days in bed seem shorter than they really are.
June 29th, 2007 at 5:43 am
I love sleight of hand too, much better than the big illusions. (But I did see David Copperfield live once, and he made it “snow” indoors at the end of the show, and … wow. Magic.)
June 29th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I don’t think I use the word magic enough. There’s plenty of words I don’t use enough…my favorite is plethora. You use the word magic in a plethora of ways :)
I do agree about the ocean; I love being in Hawaii and just sitting on the beach for hours watching.