A musing inspired by the recent extreme weather on the East Coast: Earlier I made fun of those people who were angry because the ground would not spout gas after the power went out. This has led to some reflection on my part, though. We live in a time of magic. We have grown up in a time of magic, so much so that many of us take our environments for granted. We push a button. Water spouts into a fountain. We push another button. Invisible waves heat our leftovers. We enter a dark room. We flick the switch. We then start moving a little plastic curvy thing around to get to this mysterious thing called Itunes.
Here’s the question for readers: The power goes out. Really out. The zombies have made repairs impossible. What do you do then? Having a generator is obviously a good plan but that generator is only buying time for awhile, keeping the magic alive through another piece of magic called a generator.
How many of the daily devices that populate your life do you actually understand? Obviously it’s not practicable to try to learn how to construct all of the electric/electronic genies that grant our daily wishes, but I would suggest that a little time in the library or bookstore might be a good idea. Too much magic is not necessarily healthy — and it’s all magic until you understand the mechanisms under the surface.
