Just the Facts, Ma'am

Part of an IM conversation with a wise, wise friend tonight. Doesn't matter the topic, really. Just the words. Enjoy the words for all their painful, absurdist value.

Friend: this is ancient Japanese wisdom for you.
McBickle: ha
Friend: the old sages sat around looking at flowers as though they'd never seen one before
McBickle: and ny jewish wisdom tells me to realize i'm nuts

Now do you understand what some of us are dealing with here?

Do you know, yourself, what it is like to live abroad and have to explain to people, "No, I am not 'stress-ed.' Haven't you ever seen a Woody Allen movie?"

Coincidentally (ha. See below, and above, hm), I've been considering the proliferation of the words "magical thinking" this year in the media. I thought maybe it came from Joan Didion's choice of title for her most recent book. Maybe. (Magical thinking?)

Anyway, Benedict Carey has an interesting story in the NYT today, "Do You Believe in Magic?"

I like this part, by somebody named Emily Pronin, who I have come across somewhere in my past, although I cannot pinpoint exactly where:

“'The question is why do people create this illusion of magical power?' said the lead author, Emily Pronin, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton. 'I think in part it’s because we are constantly exposed to our own thoughts, they are most salient to us' — and thus we are likely to overestimate their connection to outside events."