Un ragazzo chiamato Bi
Lady magician
People, I have a confession; I want to believe. I want to believe in aliens, I want to believe in selkies, dragons, yetis and the Loch Ness Monster. Most of all I want to believe in magic. Yes, I regularly read New Scientist and Scientific American. I can even remember the data in some of the articles, should it happen to be stuff that actually matters to me (for example it has recently been demonstrated that pigeons have an innate understanding of probability). I raised my kids to question subjective judgements and to cite acredited sources. Still, when small children ask my opinion on the legitimacy of the Tooth Fairy I say “well I have never actually seen one, but… I do really want to believe.”
I’m old enough to know better, old enough to have known at least one professional magician. He was downright creepy. Children mistrusted him, dogs actively disliked him. Nonetheless there was something delightful about his performance, even though I knew it to be well practiced prestidigitation. It wasn’t the skills learned through years of rehearsal, it wasn’t the costume or the glitter. I just wanted to experience wonder, wanted to step away from the responsibilities of rational thinking.
In the year since Fabrizio took this delightful photograph the world continues on a fast track to hell. Every week my rational mind is shaken by new horrors. So right now I want to stand before this lady magician, in the clear light of day, I want to see her perform magic, and I want to believe.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Rachel Irving and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
