Ramblings of a drunken monkey

Part 1: Blunt Beginnings

Witches don't exist, wizards however are real. That's just the way it is, sorry!

Witches were myths; a word created to explain that and those which could not be explained by logic or current understanding. It seems that before the time of witches, such people would have been considered goddesses or priestesses but, unfortunately for them times changed and the term 'witch' was used, in conjunction with burning at the stake or drowning.

Now wizards are a different matter entirely. These are people with arcane knowledge or innate skill in a subject to such a level that it can be used to heal or destroy. Simple as that I'm afraid. In truth 'witches' were just wizards but with unexplained bases of their knowledge, or, for sexist sake, just women so were considered a problem, but that's a story for another day.

A fighter may be considered a wizard, provided they have the depth of knowledge to warrant the title. Recent historical examples include Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali and Jet Lee, lots of 'Lees' in there by coincidence. Before that there was Achilles and Hercules (funny that, a few more 'Lees'). Similarly a musician, an artist, a florist, a husband, a candle maker or a healer may all be considered a wizard given the right depth of knowledge and their expression of such knowledge.

"Hang on!" I hear you gasp; surely a healer has the knowledge to heal so must be a wizard? No. A healer has the knowledge of healing, whether they are able to use the knowledge correctly, effectively and consistently becomes the distinguishing feature between a wizard and a non-wizard, or in fact a healer and a fake.

So yes, for those looking for magic and the mystical and arcane, I have just shot down your two biggest bases of interest (or have I?); witches are lies and wizard can be anyone. But don't be put off; there are plenty of avenues to pursue.

So are you a wizard?

Well first you win prizes for asking. Polite public convention would consider you odd for even considering such an idea.

I want you to think; contrary to the usual crap you are told I don't want you to think hard. If you think hard you think too much, too deep and too far you miss what's right in front of your nose, on top of the pile, the 'obvious answer', that gut feeling that's actually 100% correct, it just seems too easy.

What are you good at?

What do you love?

What do you do over and over and not get tired of?

Really??!

Just kidding, yes that.

That one thing you think of every day, that you wish you were doing whenever you're not. It may seem silly; like 'crosswords' was one answer I got when I asked the same question. Sewing, gardening, baking, running were all answers from other people but yes, that's it.

"Oh great!" I hear you exclaim, "I'm a wizard of crosswords!"

Yes! Hell yes and yes again. Be proud of it!

Think for a moment of what you can do at a fundamental truth-based level. You can think of words with hidden or skewed meaning in seconds flat. You can decipher cryptic clues; you can see how a puzzle fits together with just a single hint. That's pretty cool if you ask me! Being a word wizard (or 'geek' to use the modern vernacular) is not a bad thing, hell the team that cracked the Nazi Enigma Machine were word geeks, do you imagine any of them were ashamed of their skills!

Ok, what about cooking, seemingly useless? Not many teams saving the world with that one, right? Ok, maybe, and maybe not. For one, we've all got to eat and these days fast food is low in nutrition, tastes like chemicals and isn't actually all that fast. So what can you do that's so special? Well, I'm pretty sure you've moved beyond basic recipes; maybe adding a little here and there or just plain ignoring those that won't work. Maybe you've gone even further and can create a culinary work of art from scratch without anyone or anything telling you what to do. In essence you can understand the fundamental traits of hundreds of ingredients, spices and flavours and know how they fit together. I recently learned that any chilli recipe is reliant on one single ingredient. You can add pretty much whatever you like to a chilli but if there's no cumin it will never taste like a chilli. And I'm merely an enthusiast at cooking.

Expand that skill to CEOs, directors of businesses or more closely, but equally impressively, master chefs; the concept is exactly the same, just different 'ingredients' and your skill is pretty amazing. Now THAT is saving the world level stuff.

Everyone has a 'geek' inside them. If you haven't found your 'geek' then I urge you to try everything and keep looking. If you have found your 'geek' then BRAVO, HURRAH and a big ol' WOOP to you. Stick with it, love it, embrace it and develop it as far as it can go. For those who found it but were ashamed of it, or worse, were made to feel ashamed of it, then please, for your own sake, try again if you can. Find a 'safe' place to develop it. Those who shunned it may learn to accept it, if not then the blockage may be with them and not with you.

Despite all my enthusiasm however, I would be cautious though as to what your 'geek' is. More on this later....