So after last night's whiny rant, I decided I need to push myself a little more out of my comfort zone today and/or have fun. There's nothing wrong per se with treating magic as an intimate act, but it's not helping me out right now, and a little openness on my part in an environment filled with people who know what they're talking about can only help me learn and grow.
I'm going to make it a goal to attend at least one random panel today (that I know none of the presenters at) just for the educational value, as well as the Discordian pop-magick Sandman reconstructionist ritual tonight. (I'm curious about it for its own sake - I think I'm in exactly the right frame of mind right now to appreciate a ha-ha-only-serious working - but it also helps that I met 
metaphorge and tyrsalvia last night and got an invitation. A nice reminder that while I don't have a "tribe" here in the sense of a core tradition, I know enough random friends and acquaintances from various backgrounds that I can legitimately say my "tribe" is that diaspora.)
Random anecdote from a friend who shall remain anonymous: Said friend was wandering through the dealer's room and had xir eye caught by a talisman. The purpose of said talisman - sold within a small bag - was to cast a charm spell on the person who looked at it, causing them to fall in love with the owner. Xe was curious but impressed (being single and wishing to do something about it), and bought the item.
When xe told me about it, I though for a few moments and asked, "So, did you open the bag before you bought it?"
"Well, yes -" xe said ... then stopped dead.
I was briefly tempted to suggest that xe had been swindled in some fashion, but thinking about it a little more closely - if xe bought the talisman because of the magical effect it had on xir, then weren't they simply buying the item because it worked?
(It was later verified that the talisman still had the power necessary to activate the spell it contained. If it was meant to be a one-shot talisman, this makes my implication amusing but wrong. Still worth sharing for the humor value.)
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