Oh, oh, oh it’s magic

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I have a friend who sees eye to eye with me on most important subjects: faith, responsibility, honor and what the all-time best line from a television show was (“I’m gonna need a hacksaw” – Jack Bauer, 24). But on one subject we disagree: magicians and magic shows.

He’s likes them.

I don’t.

Or at least I didn’t. My argument against magicians and magic shows is the premise. The audience understands that what they are about to witness isn’t really magic, it’s a series of illusions. Slights of hand and distraction created to fool you. In essence, I felt like you were paying someone to lie to you and to trick you. It never sat well with me, and I have held stubbornly to my stance on the subject.

I took an informal survey via Twitter and Facebook and asked others whether they liked magic/magicians, and why or why not. The majority opinion was that yes, they did. Many said they try and figure out how they pulled off the illusions, while my friend Helen said she didn’t want to know. She embraced the mystery. I still wasn’t completely dissuaded from my opinions on magicians and magic shows, but I was beginning to understand why many people enjoy them. The following is the most convincing argument for magic that I received:

“In a word, possibility. It’s like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. I don’t believe in their existence, but I believe in their possibility. I know it [magic] is an illusion. It’s always an illusion. But I also believe real magic is possible. Miracles are magic. And that sense of magic is something we just don’t have anymore.”

I want to believe in magic. I want to believe that miracles are still possible; that they aren’t relegated to biblical times. I want to know with my head that most magical things are illusions, but hold fast in my heart the hope that there’s a chance some are real. And so, I think I’ve actually changed my mind about magicians and magic shows. Which, if you know me at all, is a small miracle in and of itself. Do you believe in magic? In miracles?

In a Miracle (by Jonathan Butler)

I know you feel like letting go
You’ve suffered more than I could know
But if you’d seen the things that I’ve seen
Hold on my brother now,
It wont be long

Don’t think that He’s forgotten you
He’s by your side within you too
Through your worst fears
He’s right there
Waiting for you now
Waiting for you

He can make any desert bloom
In a heart like yours there’s room
for changes
and the change is coming soon
Don’t you know it’s just begun?
We’ll move that mountain with love

In a miracle

And all the things you used to know
Like skies of blue and fields of snow
With my hand on my heart
I promise they are
waiting for you now
waiting for you

He can make any desert bloom
in a heart like yours there’s room
for changes
and the change is coming soon
Don’t you know it’s just begun?
We’ll move that mountain with love

In a miracle

There’s no limt to
all the things He can do
Imagine what He can do for you
He’ll rescue you safe
from the prison of pain
and back to your life again

Tears bring Him closer
closer to you

He can make any desert bloom
in a heart like yours there’s room
for changes
and the change is coming soon
Don’t you know it’s just begun?
We’ll move that mountain with love

In a miracle