Okay, Mickey, you have said you have confidence in science to the point of not believing in God… at least not the Christian imaginary sky-friend with the white beard and bad temper. But your use of magic words then makes you a hypocrite.
What? Magic words, you say?
You heard me. You use words that give you special powers. And you believe in them like some kind of anti-science religious zealot.
Thank you, Bruce Rydberg, for giving me this useful meme.
Okay, you caught me. There are certain words that do have super powers. I know because I have used them. (And Science is not the opposite of faith. Just ask Heisenberg.)
I first suspected that magic words really existed back in college. I read the book Dune by Frank Herbert. (Followed by every other book he wrote. I became a Dune-dream believer.) Remember the part where Paul uses the Bene Gesserit fear chant to get through the psychological test given to him by the Bene Gesserit witch? You don’t? You haven’t read it? I sometimes forget other people aren’t hopeless Trekkies and Sci-fi nerds too. I do know, at least in my head, that most people have real lives outside of their own heads. But I did develop a magic word to deal with times of stress and fear.
Really, Mickey? You chant this out loud when you’re nervous?
I say it in my head over and over to focus my spirit on what is truly important. Never out loud. I used this word to get through my wedding day in 1995 when a blizzard in Iowa prevented all of my non-Texas family at the time from attending. I used it the day my first son was born when the delivery had to be accomplished by c-section due to heartbeat irregularities. I used it the day an irate student came down the hallway towards me with metal ninja throwing stars, saying he was going to kill a specific student that was hiding in the History teacher’s classroom. Yes, it helped me think and act appropriately during some rather intense times. Sometimes a bit of nonsense injected into the middle of a tense situation makes all the difference in the world.
But that isn’t the only magic word that you made up, is it?
No, there’s the word “Paffooney” which you may have seen before in this blog. It stands for a picture of my own design put together with words I have actually written myself. Remember this?
It still works. I tested it myself this morning. It gives you a look at my artwork posted on this blog without risking the danger of going back through all my old posts and accidentally reading something that makes your head melt.
But, really, are your magic words only words you made up yourself?
No. I think the word “Truth” is a magic word. It can be used or misused for both good and evil.
This is very likely the magic word we need to defeat the orange-faced monkey we elected president. There are lots of words that have immense power. And all you have to do is believe in it a little bit… and use it intelligently.
Catch a Falling Star 
Skyscapes of the Cloudy Mind
I admit it. Even though I collect pictures of sunrises to glory in the fact that I still have another day of life in this world, I rarely snap a picture of the cloudless sunrise. It is very possible that this has something to do with what ultimately gives life value and makes it worthwhile to live one more day.
If there is no pattern, no color-changes, no contrast, no variation… then why bother? And this doesn’t only apply to living your life. It applies to taking pictures of the sky too. Solid blue or solid yellow are about as interesting as a minimalist painting. (Have you ever seen the big beige squares and red squares that fill entire walls of the Dallas Art Museum? Like a picture of a polar bear in a fierce blizzard or an extreme close-up of the side of a tomato.)
Yes, sunshine and happiness are all well and good… but you don’t get a satisfactory skyscape without some clouds in it. In fact, rain clouds provide the most fascinating patterns and colors. What would the picture be without a little drama splashed here and there to make a center of interest or a counterpoint to the happy ending? They say that variety is the spice of life. And when they say that they probably mean cayenne pepper rather parsley or oregano. If that’s not what they mean, then why the hell did we bring food into the discussion?
So, I am thinking, there have to be clouds. (Notice, I said “clouds”, not “clowns”, because… according to the song, there “ought to be clowns”, not “have to be clowns”.)
It is true that clouds can mean sadness… that the rain is coming, that your vision is obscured, that something has come between you and God’s eye. But without clouds, the sky would be plain and boring. Better to burn bright and explode in a short amount of time than to linger over a plain pale blue.
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Filed under clowns, commentary, foolishness, humor, photo paffoonies
Tagged as clouds, humor, metaphor, sunrises