Tired of fantasy stories that long for a golden past where witches were burned and power wore a crown? In this essay, I argue that magic hasn’t vanished—it’s evolved. From fungal networks to fiber optics, the Fae didn’t disappear. They just upgraded. Let’s stop mourning the myths of yesterday and start building the enchantment of tomorrow.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of answering a survey about health care. Normally, when I get those types of robo-dialed call-center calls, I wait for the person on the line to say “Hello,” but for whatever reason, I said hello first. And then, when asked if I’d be willing to do a survey, I uncharacteristically said “yes.” It was interesting to take the survey both because of what I know about health care and my opinions on it. But what was more interesting was how the questions were phrased. I’d often wondered how one company could do a survey claiming that 87% of Americans love chocolate. And then another company could do a survey the next day claiming that 87% of Americans hate chocolate. After taking yesterday’s survey, I understand how this can happen. The questions (and supplied answers) can rig the results. For example, several of the questions had this format:

I was reading a post on the US Conservatives blog on About.com. As I read that post I was first nodding, then pausing, and finally gaping. It’s not that I disagree with the premise that people lose healthcare when they lose their jobs. But the statement that healthcare is guaranteed in this country just made me laugh. I suppose if you ascribe to the belief that people who lose their jobs and thus insurance will then only need medical care for ER type things. Things like Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and multiple myeloma. They’ll have their foot go gangrenous because of poor circulation and the ER will be enough care for them. By all means, let’s get more jobs with insurance. But let’s not use that argument muddy the waters of the need for a real healthcare system for anyone not wealthy. What astounds me more is that the writer doesn’t have insurance through his job writing for About.com. But maybe his wife does?