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.

 

 

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© 2006 by David Drury

 

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