Why I Believe in Magic

In an online discussion I just ran into , the question was whether or not people believe in magic. A couple of contributors expressed views that I think are similar to mine. One mentioned that some people have one kind of magic in mind while others have a different idea of what magic is. She used words along the lines of "Harry Potter kind of magic" to differentiate between the "casting-spells kind of magic" and the kind many of us have experienced/observed in our own lives.

My thoughts here are far, far, from unique or even magical. Still, on this somewhat unseasonably cold, blustery, early December, Monday morning; it has been nice to think about believing in magic.

There is magic in the world and in Nature and in living, but it's the kind of magic that has to do with "magical moments" and wonderment or else having things happen that certainly feel like they could be magic at the time (or even long afterward). Magic in the first "categories" is the kind too many people either don't notice or don't experience. An example of the latter (third) kind of magic might be something like a person who has no money and no idea of if/when he's going to buy the next meal - and a twenty-dollar bill is is blown by the wind from "nowhere" and seems to fall out of the sky and land on the road in front of him (even when everything that surrounds that road is "nothing but trees". Of course, magic isn't always about something as ordinary as bills in one denomination of another; and a wind-blown ten-dollar bill in a gas-station-loaded downtown, may seem like a miracle or good luck - but it doesn't necessarily seem like magic. On the other hand, the twenty that falls from the sky and makes its way to just the person who needs it, when there is nothing but trees around - now THAT can feel (and maybe even be) like real magic.

There's even a "much smaller" kind of magic that can sometimes be felt or seen in something like an artist's work, when he's put together just the right combination of ordinary things (paint, canvas, and his ideas if the artist paints, maybe even just the right combination of ordinary, black-and-white, words if the artist writes)

Any of these kinds of magic are hard to define, and this kind of magic doesn't come along every day in every life. Too few people even know it exists, too few experience it, and too few don't recognize it or feel it even if/when it shows up in their life.

Some of this kind of magic just kind of "screams 'magic'" no matter how little belief in it someone has, but another type of it comes when the ordinary-life things mix with some extraordinary elements of Nature but also mix with some elements of what we think of as the "heart". Without that perfect combination it's either not magic or else magic that isn't noticed in an otherwise ordinary world.

I don't mean to insult anyone by saying this (only my opinion, after all), but I think when people have experienced/seen/felt the kind of magic I'm talking about, they know that nothing could be more real or less extraordinary; and they do looking for other kinds of magic in things like Harry Potter books, voodoo, or even (and I know this isn't believed to be "magic" anyway)"magicians" who make handkerchiefs appear and disappear.

Maybe some people who believe, or would like to believe, in the Harry Potter kind of magic find the idea of having "magic powers" appealing to them. The human spirit, heart, and mind have extraordinary powers to do all kinds of things in this world we live in. I think that when people believe in their own power to do what human beings can do in this world (even if they know there are limits to it at times)

Yes, there is magic everywhere in life. It is the unexplained, the unexplainable, the difficult-to-explain, and the amazing. It has to do with wonderment and awe, but there are elements beyond just wonderment and awe that make what seems like nothing more than a magical moment seem more certainly to be "real-life magic", itself. Some people believe there's no such thing as that elusive, "real-life magic". Some believe there's only "other-life" magic or "other-dimension" magic or at least anything other than any magic that shows up in a world which can be so "real" and so often, so ordinary.

Then, too, there are those who believe that the only magic there is in this world is the kind we may feel or witness when we see a particularly striking sunset with, perhaps, a particularly awe-inspiring visual effect when it comes to the way the light shows through, or around, some quiet and disappearing clouds. That's certainly one view of, and kind of, apparent magic - but it's not all there is to defining the real magic in life either. That's thing, though: Much magic often defies definition. Magic is a lot more than just a striking sunset alone, and it's even a lot more than the rare twenty-dollar bill falls from the sky.

It's not something we can, or should, ever rely on to give us power we don't have in this world; and it really isn't something we can reliably hang our hopes on (although, in times when there is little hope of any other kind we sometimes do, and are even occasionally surprised when magic makes it way into our lives). Still, magic isn't something we can bottle up, package, or even write very eloquently about. It's also not something we create for ourselves (although sometimes we can, in some small way, create a little magic for someone else).

In some ways magic is like the ever-mythical figure, Santa Claus. Sometimes it comes into the life of only thos who believe, but may sometimes, as well, come into the life of those who don't. There are also times when those who believe are disappointed when their life remains untouched by the very thing they they most need or want, which may be either a Santa Claus or a touch of magic. No. Magic isn't like the washing-machine repair man who is always there for us to call if our washing-machine breaks down. Neither is at common at the woods alongside any highway, or as regularly appearing as sunsets, sundowns, and breathtaking tides. Then too, anyone who has ever held his own newborn child is very likely to swear to you he knows what magic is - but that's not really magic either. That's love or amazement or even a miracle, but not really magic.

Magic is real, and it is made of a number of different ingredients in life, in circumstances, and in the individual; but it can't be summoned or created by mixing up potions or saying magic words. Creator of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, herself, has attributed her ability to put her brand of imaginary magic in her books to her own childhood, in which she spent much time alone and thinking. Some might argue that the phenomenal success this one author has had with her books is, in itself, far more "magic" for the formerly struggling author. Still, that's not magic at all - at least not the kind I have in mind.

The thing is, in its rare yet universal yet elusive way magic is something that isn't reserved only for those who have imagination and creativity to conjure it up. It is for everybody, and it can make believers out of the most hard-core non-believers there are.

Oh... magic is real and it exists in this life. It's just not possible to really define it, share it, or create it in its truest form. You won't see it if you close your eyes, though; and you'll never feel it with a hardened heart. You won't hear it if your ears are filled with the wrong words or the wrong music, and the place to look for it is not on library shelves or the Internet. The thing is, if magic were easy to see, feel, hear, or find it wouldn't be magic. All anyone can really do is know that it's out there, finding believers and non-believers all the time.