Now you see me

“Love is the Magician that pulls man out of his own hat “ - Ben Hecht

I have been a fan of Magic real and make believe for a while, Houdini and David Blaine are my favorites.. From time to time, I still go back to harnessing a day dream of being an on stage magician.

I just saw “Now you see me 2.” .. and I am awestruck. Because now I see it too.

Not just because of all the tricks and the magicians secret revealed bit, although that was great too.

The Movie really came together for me in the end… when Mark Rafalo , who plays Dylan , the central character and Morgan Freeman who plays Thaddeus Bradley Dylan’s fathers partner, after a cat and mouse chase - meet in  the end..

The whole movie starting from part 1 is about Dylan avenging his fathers death, when a final act of escaping the Iron chest goes wrong, and Dylan believes that Thaddeus is responsible for it since the two were rivals. Dylan spends 30 years of his life planning a revenge act and putting Thaddeus behind bars for life.

And in the end, after being setup by Thaddeus in the same chest that his father could not escape, this time with a little help, , Dylan manages to set himself free…and not just from the Iron chest.

“The only way out is through” – Thaddeus says with the characteristic smile on his face and  Care and Patience writ in large bold letters  across his face.

The perplexed Dylan, is told that the only reason the truth was not revealed to him was that while he though that he was after revenge  - he really was wanting redemption.

Redeeming himself as a son who “couldn’t save his father”  and  redemption on behalf of his magician father who couldn’t free himself from the iron chest ” . While he thought he wanted  was to cage Thaddeus,  what he was really after was to free himself.. something that Thaddeus saw and provide for.

This made me think of father and Son/daughter redemption?? How much time of our lives we spend on proving or disproving an incident and holding on to grudges.. and in the end just to find out, that all of this was really to become free ourselves.

I know. I have been there. With my relationship with my dad, who was more father in absence. It took my son to make me realize that my dad was also a man, who had his own journey and holding on to bitterness was really hurting me most. And my path to redemption was then to provide that love for my son and myself unconditionally.

 As I  wondered about Magic I figured that’s what it was about  - The wonder.

When we wonder we make up many many  scenarios… only to realize years later that  most of them …didn’t really happen.  But we make them up anyway to keep being right about our grudges. Because to be honest without the exaggerated versions of our stories, the grudges don’t really make sense…and so, neither do all the choices we make along the way.

In the end ..like in the movie..it’s just ourselves that we have to set free.

A lot if it also has to do with seeing the other side of the story.

As a kid,  I was a performer. I loved my family who was always , a ready enthusiastic audience who thought I was the best, especially my mom.  I performed my own silly versions of magic shows, I would Pause after I visibly moved the coin from one hand to the other and then everyone clapped …

Again... the entire effort was to keep my hands empty ..THAT was the proof of good magic 

It was a Magic show, alright, except the Magic, was certainly not in what I did .. but in who I was becoming in the way my family was seeing and responding to me with love …

That, was what pulled me out of my own hat.