I am feeling quite chuffed with myself because I have invented a magic trick. It is not something I have seen anywhere else: the only way to see it is to ask me to perform it for you. [pauses to wait for stampede of requests that doesn’t actually happen].

I call it ‘Mind Boggled’.

Now when I say I have invented a magic trick, I should say that it uses a pack of cards and they have been around for centuries. And it involves finding a spectator’s chosen card. Which is the basis of most card tricks. And it also involves a word game that I didn’t invent.

So to say, “I have invented a magic trick” may not be strictly accurate. Pedants (and I know a few) might say that I have created a new method of revealing a chosen card using a pre-existing word game rather that having invented a magic trick.

Innovation and invention are interesting concepts. They almost always build on someone else’s innovation or invention. For example the person who invented the motor car relied on the invention of the wheel, which in turn (pun intended) relied on the invention of the chisel (stone or otherwise) to carve the first circular rock and make a hole in it (assuming the Flintstones  Generation invented the wheel), and that relied on the invention of the chisel-making tool… It is rare that anyone invents something completely new.

Before we get puffed up with pride and self-importance about our own greatness and achievements perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on those who have helped us. [cue award ceremony acceptance speeches]. Perhaps we should reflect too on the Creative One who has given us imaginations, cognitive ability, problem-solving skills and the materials on this planet to be able to make these things a reality.

So perhaps my ‘chuffed’ level should be downgraded from ‘quite chuffed’ to merely ‘chuffed’, or perhaps even as low as ‘a bit chuffed’.

But I will still perform the trick for you if asked!

Be blessed, be a blessing