What to Remember When Waking

Over the last ten years, I have increasingly become a fan of the work of David Whyte. Initially it was his prose but after hearing him on podcasts and seeing him live, his poetry too. The following is one of two works that spoke to me.

Enjoy the break from the usual.

What to Remember When Waking

In that first
hardly noticed
moment
to which you wake,
coming back
to this life
from the other
more secret,
moveable
and frighteningly
honest
world
where everything
began,
there is a small
opening
into the new day
which closes
the moment
you begin
your plans.

What you can plan
is too small
for you to live.

What you can live
wholeheartedly
will make plans
enough
for the vitality
hidden in your sleep.

To be human
is to become visible
while carrying
what is hidden
as a gift to others.

To remember
the other world
in this world
is to live in your
true inheritance.

You are not
a troubled guest
on this earth,
you are not
an accident
amidst other accidents
you were invited
from another and greater
night
than the one
from which
you have just emerged.

Now, looking through
the slanting light
of the morning
window toward
the mountain
presence
of everything
that can be,
what urgency
calls you to your
one love? What shape
waits in the seed
of you to grow
and spread
its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting
in the fertile sea?
In the trees
beyond the house?
In the life
you can imagine
for yourself?
In the open
and lovely
white page
on the waiting desk?

~ David Whyte ~
(The House of Belonging)

Healthy Magic

Scott Simon recently interviewed author, Clay Johnson, on his new book, Information Diet . The whole interview can be found here, but I wanted to point out this quote:

"The question is, can we make enough people go: 'Hey, you know what? I'm done. I'm done with the sensationalism of media. I'm done being taken advantage of by media companies so that I can have ads sold to me.' ... If we want to make media better, then we've got to start consuming better media."

If I may wax analogous, can we say that if we want to make magic better, then we've got to start....

Performing better magic?
Buying better magic?
Supporting better magic?

And by extension stop supporting by our clicks and attention places that tear down magic through exposure, trivialization and commodification?

Essay Question (I)

Imagine yourself sitting in a lecture hall, surrounded by fellow students. On the desk is a pen and a blue essay book.

Your instructor says, "You have 20 minutes to answer the question on the board. Please be complete, thorough and mostly importantly truthful. There are no wrong answers."

You look up at the board and read:

Why do I perform magic?

What is your answer? I have mine but you first.

Estanchier: to stanch

One of my friends, teachers and inspirations recently wrote:

There are times when I’m doing my Mystery School Monday segment and thinking to myself, “My viewers would be better off if they shut down the computer and started practicing.”....why aren’t we all working on perfecting the effects we already have instead of constantly searching for something new? ~ Bryce Kuhlman - All I Want for Christmas

I have been thinking about this a great deal since the last days of 2011.

I do not consider myself a huge consumer of products. I do succumb to the lure of books but do so with hopefully, some restraint.

But I worry about the consumption of other more passive things. Things like the lure of the number of blogs that I find that are very helpful, people on Twitter that I find fascinating, or videos and films on YouTube or Vimeo that are informative or inspirational or magical.

I suppose my question is: Is this really the best use of my time? I know what my answer is. However, am I willing to own it? Or do something about it? It's way too easy to be seduced. When it's over, do I really feel good about it?

My want is to stop the flow - not 100% and not all the time but to wean myself a bit. Cut loose a few mailing lists. Hold some time to be passive media free - maybe a half day or day a week.

It's time to work on the things that are important and getting better at the things that matter - like developing a little expertise and being a better performer.

New Years Opportunities

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

I have always found the notion of New Year's resolutions a bit like wishing or hoping. I believe that New Year's wants are more to my liking. Wants are answers to questions like:

What do I want in my life?
What do I want my magic to be?
How do I want people to perceive me?
How do I want to spend my time?

This New Years weekend, I will be developing my questions. The New Year will be turning the questions into answers and answers into action I want to take. Actions get us to where and how we want to be. There's that word again - want. Wants tend to drive us. Want seems like a Magic Word. Wishes and resolutions seem without purpose. May you achieve all your wants in 2012.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning." - T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Remix

Some in magic - me for example - tend to obsess over crediting, creativity and knowing that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Some have gone so far as to sue.

Recently I found a video series by Kirby Ferguson entitled Everything is a Remix. Currently three of the four parts are available on his website and Vimeo. He makes a compelling case that it is all a remix.

In part three, The Elements of Creativity, Ferguson states that the basic elements of creativity are copying what others have done, transforming and improving what has come before, and combining various elements to make something new. In the video, the story of the printing press, the Model T and the Mac are used as examples.

Reflecting on the magical art, I found that his case holds. Look at the works of any of the current or past creators and with a little research and study, you can see the remix, the history, and the lineage. You can see this in the works of Sankey, Steinmeyer and others. New creations made from copying, tranforming and combining.

But just because everything is a remix doesn't give us a pass from acknowledging and crediting our sources. It actually makes it more important that we remember Newton's quote: If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Which by the way is a remix.

What is Magic? (XXIII)

“The magic is you.” - Albert Goshman

Irony

I have always found it ironic that some magicians advertise themselves as a Magician and Motivational Speaker. The ones that I know who do aren't very motivated nor particularly good speakers.

Being an engaging speaker - like being a good magician - is a lot of work and practice.

Or maybe they just attend the Academy.

You just can't make this stuff up.