Been a Miner for a Heart of Gold
All it should take is a spark and a prayer. For thousands of years, people knew that you could turn base metals into gold if you had the right magic. The general populace—not the hacks, scholars and scholarly hacks—has not only forgotten alchemy, they’ve lost their capacity for magic. Even worse, magic radar, the sensory organ that buzzes and pings when the forces of spirits are at hand, has been dulled and reduced to a vestigial lump, relegated to hanging out with the tailbone, the appendix and the adenoid twins. The proof is in the dialogue. Try talking about magic without drawing allegations of delusion and devilry; personally, I appreciate the compliments.
Magic happens right in front of us all the time, including right now. What if I’m falling in love with you? The base metals that make up the skeleton of your personal structure and my framework can be turned to gold with a little incantation and some gravitational forces. But if love comes from magic, is it disingenuous? Wouldn’t we be under a spell? Au contraire, my disenchanted motherlode. Love, like magic, isn’t natural. It is supernatural.
What keeps us from that alchemical romance? You, me and magic sounds like a pretty good night on the town. Buy into enchantment. Take your metaphysical capital and invest in supernatural funds. Chances are the court of public opinion will bring you up on white collar crimes, but your futures and commodities will buy you out. All it should take is a spark and a prayer. Pay attention to what happens around you and you’ll be surprised how fast someone you regarded as the old reliable lucky penny becomes your treasured gold coin. Love and metals, even magical ones, fade and corrode back into base elements, changing in substance but never in matter. I’ll tell you this much: I’d rather love you in my half-life than never at all.
- Daniel Anderson
