LET'S TALK ABOUT MAGIC.
So often, the usual type of what we call "magic" is limited to a gifted individual who can take real things and make them disappear ... become unreal things.
We expect our national president to be a person qualified to bring about such changes. We ask him to remove the restrictive bonds of unemplyment and to put the people back into jobs which no longer exist, earning real money on which to survive. We expct him to re-arrange our economic life so that we will not have to face those conditions which we feel demean us, which frighten us, or which are contrary to our true standards living.
So often, those are among the things we expect our new president to do. We willingly turn our very lives over to political groups gropeing for greatness, when what we need is more personal interest and effort.
Many fears are orges which haunt us constantly and yet are not evident enough for us to "put a finger on them " - even the ones which seem to be of most concern.
A point we tend to over look is that when we watch someone do magic tricks, we are, ourselves, ready and willing to see him do it. We must be prepared to accept what he tells us as true. Our attention must be draw aside from what his hands are actually doing when we think they're doing a normal function. So much of magic is mental and so often, by skilful mis-direction a magi-pol can convince his followers that all is well and going as planned.
Behind every magician, however, are other people and much preparation. I can remember being on stage myself and making a pint of water disappear. I poured the water, very evidently, into a metal wash basin and moments later turned it upside down over a subject's head. Not one drop came forth. But, I had to affix enough dry sponge material to the inside bottom of that pan to absorb exactly one pint of water and I had to keep any view of that area form being seen by the audience. Your politician magician is prepared to work his changes in the very same way.
I used a version of this when we were to choose a new minster for our congregation. I spoke of the need for us to prepare the way for a man who would stay. All of the aspirants were worthy - having come that far on their own – but were we?
Look at the panel of presidential potentials before us now! Are you ready to see any one of them work the magic you expect of him? And, most of all, are you willing to help him do so?
A.L.M. November 7, 2003 [c469wds]
