To Each His Own Magic

Firstly: I'm usually a pretty against-the-grain kind of gal. I resisted the HP craze when everyone was all OHMYGAWD-WHAT-WILL-I-DO-WITH-MY-LIFE-AFTER-DEATHLY-HALLOWS-COMES-OUT. I refused to get involved with the Twilight buzz (refused, but eventually broke down. What can I say? Romance is my weakness). I never really got the whole Star Wars thing (I mean, I saw the movies, but I'm not by any means a Star Wars fanatic. It's not like I know the difference between a Wookiee and an Ewok or anything. One looks like a Build-A-Bear, right?). I'll admit I latched on long and hard to the Lord of the Rings movies, but I wasn't so diehard that I read the books (barely made it through the Two Towers). I only got Facebook once my college friends hounded me so much I got one just so they'd shut up. I started blogging because, you know, bloggers are awesome.

But really, the grain and me don't exactly flow the same way. Hence the reason I never got a Twitter account.

Until now.

*shocked gasp*

That's right. As if you hadn't gotten enough of my incessant banter about Philip Winchester, my sick obsession with all things piratic, or my strange need to group things in three's, now you can follow me in 140 characters or less. Win.

Secondly: I'm in a thoroughly romantic mood after spending a good deal of the evening watching this video on YouTube. I have an obsession. I think I have an obsession with having obsessions. But this video got me thinking about Gemma and Kartik. And Kartik. And Kartik's pretty pretty olive skin...

Ahem. What were we talking about? Oh yes. Gemma and Kartik.

Of the three books in that trilogy, The Sweet, Far Thing was by far my favorite. Every line in that book felt like something I wanted to scribble on a piece of paper and tack to my bulletin board for little bursts of inspiration. But my most favorite, the one that makes me tingly and heartbroken and awed all at once was one of Kartik's lines.

"To each his own magic."

When I first read it, it made me giggle (considering the context, which, if you haven't read it, I shan't want to spoil it for you. But it is VERY giggle-inducing). The more I think about it, even two-ish years after I read it, the more it resonates in me. To each his own magic. In a romantic context, it is powerfully beautiful. And in any other context -- powerfully statement-making.

To each his own magic. (To each his own way of loving.)

To each his own magic. (To each his own way of believing.)

To each his own magic. (To each his own method of happiness.)

I don't know if Libba intended for that one phrase to be so powerful. But to me, it is the banner I want plastered on my life. To each his own magic. Basically: do whatever the hell makes you happy. If it makes you smile, do it. If it makes you certain of your place in the world, believe in it. If it fills you with so much joy and so much ecstasy and so much strength that you just have to LIVE, put your life into it.

There is a lot in this world that tries to put restraints on magic. Believing in A is right, but believing in B is wrong. Following C is right, but following D is wrong. Being E is right, but being F is wrong. Who is to say such things? Who has so much knowledge of the world that they can say EXACTLY what can or can't make someone truly happy? I can't. I know I can't. I just know that some people seem to have a type of magic that makes them glow, even if that type of magic isn't a type of magic I'd want. But I don't want them to stop chasing after that magic just because it isn't mine.

To each his own magic.

It is my greatest aspiration to someday write something as simply powerful as those five words.