The Ragtag Daily Prompt for today is MAGIC
This bit of rambling can also be my response to Biff’s Whatnot Wednesday, over at biffsockpow, if he’s doing one this week.
Seeing the word MAGIC made me wonder if it’s related to MAJESTIC, since they sound so much alike. However, Merriam-Webster informs me that they spring from two different roots:
Magic comes to us via French, via Latin, via the Greek magikē, which in turn comes from magos, a sorcerer. This word, of Iranian origin is kin to the old Old Persian maguš which means sorcerer. A well travelled word indeed!
Majesty and Majestic come to us via the French majesté, from Latin majestat-, majestas; akin to Latin major, which means greater.
In case you wanted to know. 😉
Magic is definitely a popular theme in our day. Ancient tales give us to think that wishes might come true through supernatural, reality-defying means. I suppose lotteries cash in on this “Cinderella” dream, the magical win which makes a person suddenly rich enough to afford anything they wish.
Fairy tales and stories of magic can be an amusement for youngsters; to some extent they can be used to portray the great conflicts of life, good versus evil. The triumph of love and kindness over selfishness and cruelty. I believe C S Lewis created his Chronicles of Narnia with this in mind, showing Jesus as represented by the all-knowing, all-wise, just but gentle Aslan.
Children also need to understand that, in real life, things aren’t going to get done by magic. To raise happy, well adjust children, parents need to help them grasp reality as it is and deal with it as it stands. Things like math and spelling proficiency or an orderly workspace aren’t going to fall from a twinkling fairy wand; the child must work at them. Victory may involve a constant battle, but there’s “joy in the journey.”
Being watched in my early years by babysitters with no personal investment in my future, I’ve had to learn some of this the hard way myself. No sudden windfall from a long-lost uncle to fill our bank account; no little elves sneak in at night and clean up my kitchen for me. 😉
I remember my father years ago making a comment about prayer in the same sense. We were talking about prayer, how God hears and answers prayer, and great things being accomplished through prayer. Then he looked around and said, “That may be, but prayer isn’t going to get this floor washed. I’d better get at it.”
He was being flippant, but he had a point. Some things happen, people meet “coincidentally”, dangers are avoided by a few minutes, answers to a problem pop into our heads, in quite miraculous ways through divine intervention. But, as my Dad said, the basic work of life we usually have to deal with ourselves.
Christine's Collection 
And how bored we would be if magic could be made to grant our every wish
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How bored, how lazy, how greedy, how self-centred…etc.
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Indeed.
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Great post!
I like the notion of magic as much as the next person, but as a reader, I always considered it sort of a “cheat code” in writing. it was a quick and easy way to get a character out of a tough spot or to move the plot along without actually having to go though the effort to move the plot along.
On the other hand, who doesn’t love a spot of magic now and then? For instance, it seems like magic to me when someone moves a pencil around on a piece of paper and it becomes a beautiful work of art. Or someone sits down at a piano and the sounds of “Moonlight Sonata” comes out of it. Or I drive through the drive-through at McDonald’s and they get my order right.
Magic is all around us!
P.S. Thanks for the link to my blog!
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Glad you enjoyed my little spiel.
I’m with you on some sort of magic moving plots forward. One of my greatest peeves is when book characters behave totally out of normal in a situation, like when Sally the sleuth confronts Suspect, gets in her face, and Suspect blabs all relevant info. If someone became aggressive with me, belligerently demanding to know where I was at such and such an hour, I’d become Super-Clam. “None of your business. You’re not a cop. Get lost.”
But if you want to really hear MAGIC, I read a book one time where a person riding on a train FALLS OFF the train IN FRONT of the train — and even far enough in front of the train that the train comes to a stop before hitting the person (now lying on the tracks). That is major magic. 🙂
You’re welcome for the link. I guess I have an advantage over you when it comes to posting for Whatnot Wednesday. You have to work for a living, whereas I get to spend my morning hours whacking away at my computer keys, dreaming up responses. 😉
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