Forgotten Words & Magic Drawers: The Stories we Never Told

In magic there’s a concept called the magic drawer. It’s the collection of tricks you bought, that you’ve never performed, never will perform, sitting in the bottom of an old drawer. A trophy case of bad magic tricks. And once in a while, it’s the funnest thing in the world to dig through that old junk drawer of magic past.

I recently dug up some old blog post drafts. Posts that never saw the light of day. That’s the idea version of the magic junk drawer.

In revisiting these words, I found pieces of myself—moments of clarity, frustration, curiosity. I also found a lot of reasons for why these thoughts were better left unpublished.

One draft was about video game music. One was about being mindful. There was a rant about dad bods (?). On being sticky. French toast. A blog about steak. It was all deep stuff. With a small side of cringe.

Actually, the meat one wasn’t bad. It was about the quest for a perfect steak. Not from a fancy restaurant, but from a camping trip upstate with my uncle. We didn’t have Michelin stars or white tablecloths—just a fire, some meat and some bourbon. Cooking that steak surrounded by nature and people I care about: it’s like we’re evolved to get meaning from moments like that. And I swear that it’s the best steak I’ve had to this day. 

There was a draft titled “Missing Magic,” inspired by the story of Matthew Buchinger, a magician born without arms or legs, who performed incredible feats of magic. In Buchinger, I saw challenge and triumph. I also saw a preachy soapbox. The post was meant to be a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Instead, it was a celebration of my inability to hit publish.

And now I’m obsessed with the idea of what other people’s magic drawers look like. Where is their collection of unfinished projects? When was the last time that they dug in, and how did it feel?

Looking through these drafts, I’m reminded of how much I’ve changed. Just kidding. I’m still an insecure, nostalgic, scrawny magic nerd.

Luckily this draft won’t see the light of day either.

PS – next time you come over, ask to see a trick from the magicc drawer. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.