The Intangibles

 Intangibles. As a child I would religiously read the Miami Herald sports section. They had these great football preview articles  where the writers would break the game down position by position to see who had the advantage. Then they would explain who had the edge on offense, defense, special teams, coaching. And there was this wonderful final category that I always read: intangibles. These were the things there were outside the realms of basic logic and analysis. The magic happens in the intangibles, so you are trying to see which team will get lucky, have the ball bounce their way in tough situations, etc. You couldn't plan for intangibles but you could make quantum physic 'cloud-like' guest-imations.  Some times the intangible would be the way the wind would unpredictably whip around in a particular stadium, or some times it would be that a particular athlete was playing in front of his family. The writers would find these wonderful, tiny bits of information and see who had the edge in 'magic.' 

The intangibles make life worth living. It's actually why we watch sports...for the thrilling upset victories that falls outside the realm of logic. The intangibles make live performance. People will wade through years of bad theatre looking for the magic that first got them hooked. 

Theatre artists and sports athletes are addicts of the intangible. They know they can't control the world. All they can do is prepare and practice for the tangible things. But the elevation isn't up to them. Often they rely on superstition, amulets, rituals, rites, and offerings to curry favor with the spirits. When Kyrie Irving stomped on the Boston Celtics logo center court there was a 'oh that's bad ju-ju' cringe moment. Later, when he got injured ppl said 'see...shouldn't have stepped on the logo.' Now of course that's ridiculous. Kyrie Irving has a history of injuries and the accident happened days later in another stadium. But there was that 'cursed' action he did. You done messed with the intangibles! 

 In arts school I wish professors would talk about the intangibles. I know some artists who say they're cursed and their life seems to follow a series of unfortunate events, mishaps, 'just missing the deadline.' And then they're people who have the magic touch.  The most painful thing is when people have that intangible magic and then it just goes away. Or even worse, the magic completely flips and becomes a curse. The hit songs become duds, the witty jokes become offensive, the cutting-edge fashion just starts to feel inexplicably tacky.  

Prayer and meditation quiet the outside noise so that we can listen to the inner voices and intuitions which leads to magic. There is no way to plan for the intangibles, but you can set the space to welcome it in. You just have to sit. Some days will be great, some days will be awful but you keep sitting, like a writer keeps banging away at the keys in the hopes of one magic word or a comedian who keeps going up on stage to get nebulous timing that makes an audience explode with laughter.

Life is a hunt for the intangibles. We would be so boring if algorithms were flawless.