I've been thinking about magic lately.
Ok, some of that is because I am re-reading the Dresden File Books. I sacrificed a lot to complete my Masters Degree and my certificate in digital forensics. So I promised myself that as soon as I finished my degrees, I could read for pleasure. That's right, I reward myself for reading with more reading.
The one thing I didn't sacrifice while I was earning my degrees was music. And now that I have even more time to practice the organ, I am approaching it the way Dresden approaches magic.
One of the guys I work with teaches his students that computers aren't magic. I think he means that magic is the unknown and computers are the known. I say computers are magic and when we teach students to use them in ways most people can't, we are teaching our students to be wizards.
To me, the only difference between magic and a miracle is whether or not you are in a faith looking out or outside a faith looking in. And even with miracles, there is the knowledge of how the universe works.
To Dresden, magic is faith and belief. To perform magic, one has to really believe something will work and then infuse it with his will.
My problem with performing, especially on the pipe organ, is that I choke. I practice and practice and practice and then come performance time, I doubt, I second guess, and I worry. I am now trying to believe, to have faith and infuse my faith with my will.
For the first time, I performed a piece for my masters class without choking. Francks' Prelude, Fugue, and Variation took me back to my brief visit to France like some kind of magical time machine.
I hate to quote Marilyn Manson, but "Music is the strongest form of magic."
