The world needs magic
True 25 years ago. Truer now.
Late one night back in 1997, I was getting ready to shut down my computer for the day -- an aging Compaq Presario with its floppy disk drive and two CD drives, a relatively recent feature that let you copy music discs, imagine that. Cutting-edge stuff. Working as a freelance writer from my home office, I was beginning to spend a lot more time on my computer because it gave me access to the World Wide Web -- specifically, the world of magic, which I had only recently re-entered after many years away. It was the early days of the Internet and I was spending many a late night combing the growing list of online magic shops, whose pages downloaded oh-so-slowly over our modem connection and Microsoft Network. Hard to believe, but there was no Google, and I would find these new virtual magic dealers through multiple search engines -- Â MSN, Alta Vista, Magellan, Lycos, or, as a last resort, Ask Jeeves.
This night I decided that before turning in I would hop on down to Texas to visit Simply Magic, an online magic shop that had the best prices and an easy-to-read site on this thing called the Internet (we capitalized it then). But instead of finding the latest magic tricks this night, my eyes landed on an open letter on Simply Magic's home page from Bob, the shop owner. Cable TV had begun running "The Masked Magician," a four-part series in which an anonymous, disguised magician was doing the unthinkable: publicly exposing the secrets magicians had used for centuries to make their living. And Bob was on a bit of a rant. A nice one, though. I saved his words all those years ago and share them here; they spoke to me then and they are as good as any to express my feelings for why magic is needed right now:
"I tend to stay away from politics and such, but Magic is not a joke and I have something to say. Many people depend on Magic and the performance of Magic for their income, for many it is their sole source of income, why anyone would want to threaten that is beyond me! Magicians as a whole are the nicest and most terrific group of people in the world, maybe it's because we all have a common bond that brings out the child in all of us that wants to experience Mystery and Amazement and wants to share that with the rest of the world. Magic brings together people from all walks of life from all over the world into a place where nothing matters except the Love of Magic. I don't want to be long winded here, but our little world of Magic is very important in this world of ours. Magic is our way of bringing a little joy into this world, both to our audiences and ourselves. It doesn't matter whether you perform for audiences of lay people, magicians or just for yourself, Magic touches both you and your audience. Magic can transform shy and fragile boys and girls into confident young men and women and if you have no other reason to love Magic than that, then that's enough because we need these young people -- not just as magicians but as people, human beings and don't let anyone take that away!"
Simply Magic closed its virtual doors just a few later and no one in the magic world knows what became of Bob. But 25 years later, his words live on here. Yes, our little world of magic is very important in this world of ours, and yes, we need these young people, and we need them to be healthy ... maybe now more than ever. Thank you, Bob, wherever you are.