Magic
Capability is magic. That’s not to say magic is a trick nor is it mystical. It is knowable, it can be revealed but it is hidden from plain sight. The mystical is unknowable. It’s a world that we cannot understand—can’t stand-under—because it is not of substance, of matter—it doesn’t matter in this realm, at this time. Magic is not this. Magic is everything that is important to us here and now. It is to be and do. Beauty is magic, creation is magic, death is magic. How we are here, why, and what we should do with our time are all magical questions. They have a knowable answer. We have beings around us in the world who weave their life in a way that captivates us because they live the answer to these questions, they are magicians. A magician knows that an audience is focused on the outcome and frozen by the question of how. You are often stuck because your question has to do with getting the predictable answer, while those who weave magic are focused on what happens before the solution, they pay attention to your inattention.
The answer is known to a magician. He will tell you ahead of time, he just won’t reveal his path. So you become awe-struck like every human does in the face of prediction. It holds you like a prisoner because our natural inclination is to predict the future; we don’t want to move until we know the outcome. All scientific research is the desire to fortune-tell—a theory to predict the answer. All religion is a belief that the future is destined—faith that the answer will be revealed. The destination is a distraction. The passage is the target. Walking is magic, not the answer you get from it.
I’m going to tell you ahead of time; the answer is awareness, but how you get there is the rabbit.
Anything you’re curious about can be better understood with how sensitive you are to the subject. Visceral reactions to questions of comprehension—on any given topic—illuminate insensitivity, not the opposite. Absolute confidence and understanding—of how something works—makes others’ misunderstanding of it humorous to the sensitive practitioner. An offense is a by-product of misunderstanding; it is in defense of ignorance. Laughter is the reaction to recognition and observable truths. Humor is understanding.
I’m not afraid of being misunderstood, that’s the recipients problem—something for critics to ruminate on and something that creators don’t concern themselves with. I’m afraid of not understanding, of missing the opportunity to integrate into the world by being a part of it and knowing it. I want to play with magic. Yet, we have a society that demands others atone for THEIR offense, to feel guilty for someone’s inability to understand. We misdirect the fault by pointing to the wrong problem. We call those who get offended “sensitive,” this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sensitivity is being able to deeply feel and understand a subject. If you were sensitive, you wouldn’t misunderstand. In our world, sensitivity is mastery of magic; in the mystical it is divinity.
Do you think you could offend a god or gods? This is what makes blasphemy so funny, and in our culture we have made deities out of ideas that are not true, so the offense is everywhere because truth is nowhere. Our cultural blasphemy weaponizes shame and offense to stop the magic of creators. Whatever concept of god or not-god you have, you’d have to admit she’s laughing, and it isn’t because she’s offended.
This will only ever bother those that don’t create, the few that play with magic. If you are not making it, you are watching it and criticizing how it makes you feel. You cannot offend a true magician. If what you say is wrong, the wrongness is funny. If what you say is correct, the truth is apparent. And then: Abracadabra! You can share a laugh with another who is aware.
