“What happens the first time is tragedy, the second time is farce.” — Karl Marx

Well, what about the third time, and the fourth, the fifth?

I remember back in 1973, when “the energy crisis” was front and center.

Having just been fired from my one and only position as a college teacher, for being “too experimental,” I was reduced to hitch-hiking to get around. This was in the Bay Area, back in 1973.

I got a ride with a big black woman. Opened the front right door, got in, sat down, closed the door, and right away, started to complain about “the energy crisis.”

Her response, both instant and definitive, in fact her voice has resonated inside me for over fifty years:

“What you talkin’ about girl?

“THE ENERGY CRISIS IS IN US!”

— she proclaimed while pounding her chest with her fist.

So, given the fact that the price of gas has increased from about $3.65 to $4.15 here in Bloomington, Indiana, and that was overnight last week, it’s obvious that yes, the current energy crisis stemming from the latest confusing mideast imbroglio is beginning to affect Americans.

But what, for human beings, is the original energy?

Not money. Not gas. Not oil. Not electricity. It’s the energy that fills and fuels the universe, LOVE, which, if we but open our hearts, rushes through to radiate and power all of creation.

If enough of us open our hearts and keep them open, no matter what, then our sorry world will blaze forth like a magic wand.

I composed an essay about Our Magic Wand a long time ago. And I still, after all these years, come to the same conclusion.