Things people Say

With he shear volume of possible sentences and thought constructions reaching off into the infinite, I often find that people say ridiculous things.  Not you garden variety ridiculous stuff that you get out of your televangelists or UFO nuts, but stuff that if people really though about it, they might reconsider the very fabric of their reality.

There is no such thing as Magic.  Now, by this sentence, completely rational, well thinking people mean that every action has a determinable and obvious cause, that can be broken down into a series of forces interacting in a clear and concise manner.  That there is no event that happens without cause, or is totally inexplicable.  This, I believe is true.  I also believe that magic is real.  When I say magic, I mean those little bits of information received at such a subconscious level of thinking that they don't even register.  Love at first sight, Deja Vu, recollections of only the vaguest emotions without any sights, sounds or smells.  Things that you look at and don't need to wonder about, because you know within the core of your being, without explanation.

 "I don't know.'  I hate that one.  It isn't used as an honest admission of lacking knowledge though, its used as a white flag.  I hear people say this all the time,  sometimes I say it, and mean; "I honestly don't want to think about this topic in depth, please just tell me what the hell your talking about."  Now, in some situations, I understand, this is useful, you shouldn't go around trying to engage in rigorous mental chess with every conversation.  But I even hear it in academic settings in which your supposed to be challenged.  It okay to not know something.  It doesn't label you inept or a moron, it shows your strength, that you can admit something beyond your ken and work to bring it in.

For me, Santa Claus exists as well.  Of course I don't believe that there is a happy red suited man living in the frigged north giving toys to all good christian children, and coal to the bad ones.  The physical aspects of Santa Claus are of secondary concern to me.  What really matters are those thing that make this more than just a pleasant fairy tale for boring winter nights.  The stuff that latches onto those human parts of us that are altruistic and giving, that want to imagine, even if just for one day, that everyone COULD get along if we just tried hard enough.  That if you could make everyone, everywhere, happy for just one day, the world would change forever.  And aren't those lessons we want everyone to learn no matter what?  That its good to want the best for everyone, even yourself.  Or that its worth fighting those impossible battles.  There is more magic, because its difficult, maybe impossible to explain why we know that those fights have to be fought, even though often we lose.  But whats more magical than the improbable wining out over the sum of all possible probability's to the contrary. 

Statistics say it isn't magic, but our human brains don't think in statistics, they think in human terms.  Long shots are miracles, the stuff of myth and legend.  Magic.