Being magic

I'm reading a novel about a Private Investigator trying to solve a murder in a school for Mages where everyone--male and female--is called a 'mage'. It is not unlike Hogwarts and Harry Potter, except in this time and in California.

Sounds very strange, I know, but it isn't. The PI isn't a magic person and most ordinary people don't believe is wizardry. She, the PI, is the twin sister of one of the teachers at the school.

It's called Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. I recommend it.

But because I'm reading about magic, I looked at a long time at a complex line drawing with words that was made for me by S.A. an old friend, years ago.

I was Rector of St. Paul's in New Haven and S.A. was one of the seminarians working with me. Like me, he was from West Virginia and was being given grief by the Standing Committee for not being able to adequately express why he wanted to be a priest.

"Tell them you want to be Magic," I told him, only half-kidding. "You know, turn wine and bread into Blood and Body...make babies holy with a little water...forgive sins...'magic' stuff like that."

Apparently he did it and they approved him for ordination!

S. was an artist and made me an incredible piece of art surrounded on four sides by the words, time after time, MAGIC*MAGIC*MAGIC*MAGIC....

It's just above my head as I write this. I love it.

(I really miss the Harry Potter books and movies. Maybe we'll be sequestered long enough to re-read and re-watch them....That would be a gift from the virus.)