The Cure for Common Disenchantment
Part Two
By David Drury
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This is PART TWO of the series. You’ll want to read PART ONE first and PART THREE next.
As I explained in the first part of this series, I feel that
in order to be disenchanted you have
to be enchanted in the first
place. Even the word tells us this, so
it should not be as much of a surprise to me as it is. When you disassemble
something it must be already assembled.
You disassociate with friends
you formerly associated with. You disconnect connected things. You dispel
a spell. And that might be the closest
thing to what “disenchanted” actually
means: to nullify a spell or magic enchantment.
When I was in middle-school two of my closest buddies were
given magic sets for Christmas. I
remember that they brought them over to my house one time for an over-night
stay. They would go in another room and
practice the little tricks and then come in and perform for my one-person
audience. One would show an empty hand
and then all of the sudden pull colored scarves out of the same hand. They would guess my card or make my coin
disappear. But of course, I was never
really fooled. I saw the very boxes all
the tricks came in. One had the slogan,
“trick all your friends” printed on it in very large type. I knew it wasn’t really magic,
it was merely a box of fun tricks. Even
though I didn’t know how they worked I knew there was a trick. This is of course true for nearly all of
us. We watch the greatest magicians on
television and have no clue how they made some huge thing disappear – but we
don’t actually believe that made that huge thing disappear. “It’s got to be some kind of a trick,” we say. Smoke and mirrors… no doubt.
So I was never truly enchanted by my friend’s magic
sets. I did however go buy one of those
fake hollow thumbs that enable you to do the scarves trick (sorry if I’ve now disenchanted you on that trick in case
you thought it was real.) But the hollow
thumb didn’t disenchant me, it was merely figuring out how the tricks
work. I wasn’t shocked—just intrigued.
Why are we enchanted by so many other things growing up when
we’re not even enchanted by magic tricks – which exist entirely to make us
believe what we see? Perhaps other
things in life are not so obviously performed by magicians. But, of course, the things we lose faith in
don’t seem to be so fake at first. The most compelling thing is that those
everyday magicians pulling the rabbits out of the black top hat actually believe in what they are
doing. Government workers, church
workers, parents and bosses can start to believe their own tricks. Of course later on they bring on the biggest
disenchantment of them all—disenchantment with themselves. This is a dangerous trap because of course
there is true value in government, church, parenting, work, and a host of other
things that are often times prone to trickery.
I believe the church in particular is so valuable I have devoted my life
to it. In fact, you might say that my
views of government, parenting, work and a host of other things flow from my
view of the church in the world. However
much I believe in the supernatural place the church has in the world, I must beware
of letting anyone—including myself—attempt to fool the crowds with smoke and
mirrors-style ministry.
They can be so believable, however, to the crowd. Their belief in themselves causes us all to
give them a chance and often times we begin to really believe their magical
abilities. And so we become enchanted. Which is really just the
first step in becoming disenchanted. That moment of initial enchantment is the
best it ever gets. Santa is never as
appealing to a 16 year old as a 6 year old.
Enchantment entropy is the only option.
Every enchantment is destined for disenchantment. It is only a matter of time.
So my suggestion is that we live our lives in such a way
that we don’t get enchanted. It’s the
only cure for disenchantment. Don’t go
there then you won’t end up there.
This is PART TWO of the series. You’ll want to read PART THREE next.
_________
© 2006 by David Drury
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