I’m a big fan of magic. I love the surprise and wonder, the fantasy of having superhuman abilities. Although when you think about it, if you had the powers magicians pretend to have, is that really what you’d do with them?
“I can make solid objects penetrate other solid objects and teleport to new locations.”
“Wow, so you could, like, make a tumor vanish and reappear outside someone’s body?”
“Yes. But instead I’m going to make this little red ball jump around under these cups.”
The truly magical thing about magic is actually very subtle. Magic works because we can be wrong about things we’re confident we know. It plays with our assumptions, and shows us that the empty box on stage actually had a tiger in it. That’s only possible because the way we see things is far more limited than how things can really be.
Being delighted to learn that you were just wrong about something? Now that’s magical.
Have you considered applying to be a newpaper writer? Extremely nice writing!