{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Trying to Control the Magic","description":"I don't believe in superstitions unless they work. -------------- When I told my wife the topic of today\u2019s commentary, she warned that people are going to get tired of hearing me talk about this. However, I feel I\u2019m kind of obligated to discuss it. Let me explain. I think it was Dr. Gerald May - who\u2019s an author, psychiatrist, and theologian - who wrote in one of his books that superstition is best defined as \u201ctrying to control the magic.\u201d And I like that definition. And I like that a guy who is both a medical doctor and theologian acknowledges magic, almost admitting that magic exists. Seems very out of character for a person with these qualifications. So, why is superstition important and what does it have to do with today\u2019s commentary? Well, they won again. My sons\u2019 football team. They won again. Another upset. Two weeks in a row of outperforming all expectations after winning in a season in which they weren\u2019t supposed to win hardly at all. For those who need catching up, my two sons are on their high school football team, and they\u2019ve made it through the first two rounds of football playoffs and play again tonight against the state\u2019s top ranked team in their division. My sons\u2019 team, by the way, is playing up two divisions. Pundits have picked them to lose all season long and\u2026they\u2019re still playing. Against all the odds, they\u2019re still playing. Well into the post season. They are the little engine that could with nothing to lose. And it\u2019s teams like this with attitudes like this that strike fear in their opponents and they should and it appears they have. Which brings me back to superstition. For the past two weeks I\u2019ve mentioned my sons and their football team in this commentary the Friday morning and afternoon before their game that night and\u2026they\u2019ve won. Is me mentioning them and their team what\u2019s making them win? Of course not, but maybe. Maybe. I would never discredit the team\u2019s hard work, their long hot hours of summer practice, the hours the coaches spend planning practice, watching game footage, creating new defensive schemes and new plays for the next game. That\u2019s certainly where the wins are coming from. So maybe I\u2019m just superstitious and I\u2019m just trying to control the magic. That this mention somehow mystically, cosmically, superstitiously helps. And it is magic. The smiles on my sons\u2019 faces last Friday night after their win was magic. The hugs that I got and gave my sons who were so dirty and smelly was magic. The parents were beaming, too. Can you believe it, we said. This is amazing. And it was amazing. And it felt like magic. I don\u2019t believe in superstitions unless they work. And so far, this one\u2019s working. As I\u2019ve said for the last two weeks, my oldest son is a senior and each game may be the final one of his football career, which my wife and I have loved. So I\u2019m mentioning my sons and their football game and their football team here, now, one more time. I\u2019m Cam Marston and it may be too much to ask, but I\u2019m just hoping for one more week \u2013 of magic. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"