Out of My Hat

Welcome to Out of My Hat. While I know that titles have no copyrights, it's only fair to mention that I've taken this title from my friend and fellow mage, David Garrard. It seems like an appropriate title for the ramblings of a magician (or illusionist if you're one of those that balks at the word magician).

I wanted a place to share a few ideas with my friends and others and even receive some feedback. Lately I've felt more like writing than in the past and figured this is as good a forum as any to record the ramblings of a preacher/magician/dad/etc. I'm sure that some sermon notes will find their way to this posting from time to time. I hope that you will find them to be thought provoking and inspiring. For any magicians/entertainers, I will also post occasional thoughts on audiences and audience behavior.

I've also decided to write a book. I know that it will take some time (which is hard to come by) and hope that the desire to see it through to completion doesn't wane as time passes. The following is an introduction/forward that I've written for it. As research and writing progresses, perhaps I'll share more excerpts from the book.

John

JOY MANAGEMENT

FORWARD

The idea for a book on Joy Management came to me after encountering a co-worker that was reading a book on anger management. I explained to him that I had my own system of anger management that I believe works quite well. Since I have no background in any type of behavior management, and since I do have the occasional “anger issues,” he was interested to know what my personally developed system of anger management was.

I told him that I believed that “anger management” isn’t a matter of not getting angry, rather it is being able to direct your anger towards someone that can’t hurt you. For example: Let’s say that you’ve just had an incredibly bad day at work. You can’t really direct your anger at your boss; he has the authority to fire you. You can’t really direct your anger at your spouse; she has the power to—well we all know what kind of power she has. So what do you do to release the anger that is building up within you?

All I can say at this point is that I would hate to be the young girl at the drive up window that just messed up my order! She’ll never know what hit her. I might seem a little unreasonable to her because she has no idea that the rage before her has nothing to do with getting Coke instead of Diet Coke and everything to do with the fact that I’m angry and frustrated and she can’t do anything to me. Do I really think that she’s an incompetent idiot? On any other day I would probably write it off as a simple mistake. Today, however, she will go home crying because a total stranger has been rude, angry and condescending to her and then to her boss over a simple mistake. No matter. She can’t do anything about it. Now I can go home feeling better about myself and tomorrow I can go back to my job having let go of the frustration of working around incompetent people and knowing that I have put one of ‘them’ in their place.

Anger management: directing your anger at someone that may or may not deserve it and that can’t do anything about it.

While this was said in fun and we had a good time coming up with new targets where we could release our anger, it got me thinking that this could be a method for Joy Management as well. Spreading joy to people that aren’t expecting it and that aren’t expected to do anything in return. Hey! That IS a good idea. Now I can use my powers for good instead of evil.

In the following pages, I wish to share some reasons why we should be compelled to share joy and some methods for letting others know of the Joy that is within you and teaching them that they can have that Joy in their own heart and soul.