Thursday :: 25 November 2021
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spanish.magic
Seattle, WA
23 November 2021 :: iPhone 12 Pro Max :: f/1.6 1/30s :: ISO-800Dear Stranger;
Looking back on pictures I took this week to share on this post, I promised myself I'd write an entry and attempt to sleep before 2AM but it's now 2:17 AM as I start this, so I guess that blows that out of the water, but I think I better finish this before November slips away and December sneaks up on me. I think this is the kind of scenario that starts to get me into trouble, especially with letter writing, in which I place myself in a scenario in which I am doing something for the sake of doing something instead of doing something with an intent to compose something thoughtful.
Maybe that's one of the things I need to work on, now that I've typed that into existence, to allow myself the freedom to seek quality over quantity–to let myself be governed more by a string of quality entries than a string of entries that span some length of time. Maybe I just need to allow myself the freedom to write something of which I want to write and not pressure myself into making something of quality or to keep a streak going, I don't now. Is this some new byproduct of the pandemic life? I feel like I'm in some internal intellectual crisis where I just want to create things–videos, art, letters, blog posts, just to let those juices flow.
I want to tell stories. Maybe that's it.
And then there is the part of me that wants to learn things–especially surprising things–about people. Mainly because to be surprised by something about someone, it reveals the assumptions I make, and it gives me an opportunity to reflect on how I see and receive people. It gives me a chance to evaluate my risk assessment skills in the sense of whether I should allow someone the benefit of my doubt or if I should perhaps focus more on protecting my safety (not just physical, but mental, too). All of this happens quietly, of course, because I think it's always fair to have someone reveal themselves without my judgment–which in turn allows me to exist more in the moment than in the future or in the past.
That's my desire, at least. If anything, combining this with life as a crisis counsellor, it's taught me about how and when I start to make assumptions which then feeds back into some loop of adjustment, failure, adjustment, improvement. Is this what life is about these days?
Anyway, one of my favourite discoveries lately has been learning a former Formula 1 world champion has been learning magic for about the same time as I've been seriously studying it. In fact, in listening to his recent podcast appearance, I've found we have very similar outlooks on life–finding some balance of experience while also being aware of our presence on the finite timeline that is our individual lives, but I think the most pleasant surprise was discovering I had assumed magic wouldn't be something he would ever touch. Maybe what's even better is he's actually pretty good, and in seeing an old video of him performing during a television interview (while wearing Ferrari kit, so...10 years ago), it's clear he's got that Spanish school flair that is a very big component of what's driving (ha!) my current style.
That's right, Fernando Alonso is actually a pretty good magician. Maybe the trick he's been seen performing is a simple one, he's performing it instead of simply showing someone a trick–and, honestly, that's a lot better than a lot of the egos that call themselves great performers that I see these days.
What's a surprise discovery that's been making you happy lately?
Magically,
-j
