Words, Books, & Magic

"The magic is only in what books say, how they stitch the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

Ray Bradbury

I have spent easily half of my life escaping into stories. I guess most people would consider that unhealthy, and, hell, it probably is. I don't care. My number-one-favorite-thing about reading is that just by opening a book, my life disappears. Sometimes all I need are those few stolen minutes with some lovely words. When it comes down to it, everyone needs some form of respite from the daily trudge through the muck of life. We're all looking for that little bit of escape.

I have this habit of searching for those phrases and sentences that, to put it Bradbury, stitch the patches of the universe together. You know, those combinations of words that punch you in the chest and knock your mind around, dislodging something small inside you and capturing a tiny facet the human experience? I love those magic moments when I come upon a gathering of words that unsettles me with impeccable truth. It's the sort of lovely contentment born of knowing the precise way to put something, the words that pin down exactly what you're feeling and living. I always save them, storing them away like medicine to soothe the existential ache.

When I'm in need of some linguistic pharmaceuticals I usually turn to poetry, like the quietly brilliant verses of Billy Collins:

"I will still carry in my pocket
the small coin of that moment,
minted in the kingdom
that we pace through every day."

and often Kurt Vonnegut, who always makes me feel better and worse all at once:

"All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber."