I found magic in a Best Buy store

It’s been a while since I experienced magic, a sense of childlike wonder, captivating the senses, rendering a world familiar yet new. It wasn’t off in Shangri-La that I found this magic. No. It was in a Best Buy store.

The day was cold and grey, not uncommon to winter season, and I was at the Galleria mall, returning an ill-fitting sweater. I walked briskly towards Best Buy, one of the myriad gateways into the commerce hub.

As I strolled past the games section, I paused. It was too early in the morning. The entire section was still, empty, just isles of inanimate games. The only noise was the low hum of electronics from far away.

I stepped into the stillness.

Continue?

Big cartoonish letters bounced on screen. The Kinect saw me, and accepted me as its master. Perhaps a master very different from the last. Not a child rushing away to her parents’ call, but a being many years ancient and many years departed from the land of toys and bubbly characters.

With the wave of my hand, a new world opened up to me. I saw Woody. Woody, the cowboy from Toy Story, dashed and weaved in front of me.

C’mon c’mon, he waved.

I unintentionally turned my body slightly, and my toy robot avatar immediately reciprocated my movement.

Could it be…?
Maybe I should move my legs?

I started running in place, and the toy robot took off. In that single moment, I was an infant, learning how to walk/run/connect with that brightly colored world for the first time.

It was amazing!

I jumped, rolled, swirled left and right, and the toy robot hit every one of my motions on cue.

Magic.

Pure magic.