I find a small candle on the entertainment center near where I sit. I strike my lighter then look closer at the candle as I light it. There are scratches from tiny fingernails in the surface of the wax all around the wick. My daughter loves these little candles. She can’t yet be trusted around a lit candle, but she loves playing with them just the same. As I look at the flame, I recognize it as something I have seen a thousand times before. Today as I look closer and more intently, I find it intriguing that the flame is a mixture of bright light and… space, air, nothing. Looking at the flame I notice that as the color moves and changes and bounces, it appears to be something else. “It looks like a liquid”, I think to myself. The longer I stare at the flame, the more unfamiliar and extraordinary it becomes. It is like repeating an ordinary word over and over again until it suddenly sounds very strange…
“Banjo… Banjo… Banjo… Banjo”.
The thing I like the best about the flame is that it extends above the portion that is bright and easily seen and blends into something that is invisible to the eye. If I held my hand directly above the flame I would still feel it. Finally, I close my eyes after watching the flame, and I realize that I can still see it. As I open my eyes and look around, I find a discolored patch bouncing around my field of vision. Amazing!
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