Potions
In my job I sometimes get to mix ingredients together to form some mystical, amazing cure for a sore throat or nausea or somesuch ailment. The strangest thing I’ve ever mixed was a Boric Acid/Tetracycline Eye Drop for a cat, but it worked and garnered me a visit from said cat, a large Maine Coon critter named “Maine Man” and, though he later went to lie in the infinite sunny windowsill, his owner still drove across town to see me occasionally when I worked in the daylight.
Potions are like that; they give magical powers to those who can make them and strength to those who use them. Philosophically, “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” expresses the uncanny effect of a potion. Well mixed, be it by levigation and dissolution or emulsification or a combination of techniques, a potion becomes an entity unto itself…. no longer merely powder and liquid or liquid and liquid, but something unique and wondrous.
For instance, one of the most popular mixtures we make is called “Magic Mouthwash” and it is used to treat everything from casual sore throats to post-chemotherapy mouth ulcers. It is a simple blend of common, undistinguished ingredients, actually, but when combined those compounds mingle to produce a powerful, healing liquid. So it is with potions, even Mylanta stretches itself and becomes an integral part of the “Magic.”
Relationships, at their best moments, are potions of magical, strong, healing proportions. My attempts to blend my heart, mind, and life with someone else have been as difficult as the first potion I ever tried to mix, which was a disastrous attempt at Calamine Lotion. I had to throw that one away and start again; I failed in several attempts at creating magic by mixing various elements….. always searching for just the right combination and technique. With practice, I learned to blend all kinds of things: creams and ointments, liquids and ointments, powders of various kinds, even an eye drop suitable for a big ol’ cat.
I believe in potions and I believe the blending of two people is greater than just two people— that it forms something magical, something strong, something healing.
For Valentine’s Day…… here’s to all of us who believe in mixing up magic.
February 15th, 2008