Max Weber wrote how modernity brings about a disenchantment of the world. That magic is replaced with reason and rationality expunges all non-scientific realities before it. I now think that he was wrong. I believe that magic/enchantment is found almost everywhere, but only if you look for magic/enchantment and only if you believe in magic/enchantment. Children, I think, find it rather easily, adults, with more difficulty. But it is there. Waiting. It may not help us save the planet, though it should if enough of us grasp the enchantment, but it will save our souls. And of course magic is not just found in nature, or in the strange and wonderful textures of decaying industrial structures. Magic is found in people too. In relationships. Being touched by another. Perhaps that is what love is? The enchantment of souls. Illumination. Divination. God. Zen.

On 17th December 2010 I was told that I have early prostate cancer. Almost 10 years previously I hade been diagnosed with bladder cancer.

I was treated for prostate cancer with external beam radiation and hormone deprivation treatment (HDT) in the spring of 2012. The side effects of the HDT were significant, and the prostate cancer appeared to have responed to treatment.

Unfortunately the radiation treatment for prostate cancer did not work and I was informed of this in January 2015. Not only that, but was further informed that my bladder cancer ( a completely unconnected cancer) had taken a turn for the worse and needed radical intervention. This resulted in surgery to remove both my prostate and my bladder. Unfortunately due to the effects of the radiotherapy, the surgery didn't go according to plan and my bowel was perforated and the suture didn't hold. The result was an emergency operation to create a colostomy. I was in hospital for 6 weeks and came home (March 2015) with both a urostomy and a colostomy. I am now a two bag man. But that hasn't prevented me from continuing to find wonder in the world.

I was told yesterday, 4th March 2019, that I have metastatic cancer in lymph nodes. Just over 4 years since my radical cystectomy. Life goes on with a new chapter and there are few happy endings with cancer, "But he who kisses joy as it flies, lives in eternity's sunrise" (Blake). Here's to kissing joy.