Hi Ramo,
I want to share with you a quote that a friend showed me a little while ago. It's about theatre - some of the regulars who read my posts may know that I am an actor as well as a student and magician, so I love theatre, and I'm rather a performance theory buff. That said, have a look, it's a quote about providing an experience in theatre - they may not remember you per se and yet, this is what magic can do, this is what we do, this is what we strive for, this is what we can achieve, and I think that doing this once for anyone at all, or even getting close, is worth all the effort... It may not seem like much can matter... but I'll let the quote speak for itself now.
"When a performance is over, what remains? Fun can be forgotten, but powerful emotion also disappears and good arguments lose their thread. When emotion and argument are harnessed to a wish from the audience to see more clearly into itself - then something in the mind burns. The event scorches onto the memory an outline, a taste, a trace, a smell - a picture. It is the play's central image that remains, its silhouette, and if the elements are highly blended this silhouette will be its meaning, this shape will be the essence of what it has to say. When years later I think of a striking theatrical experience I find a kernel engraved on my memory: two tramps under a tree, an old woman dragging a cart, a sergeant dancing, three people on a sofa in Hell - or occasionally a trace deeper than any imagery. I haven't a hope of remembering the meanings precisely, but from the kernel I can construct a set of meanings. Then a purpose will have been served. A few hours could amend my thinking for life. This is almost but not qutie impossible to achieve."
~Peter Brook, The Empty Space
You're doing it for that moment, that meaning - and even if you don't hit that high mark, you entertain someone, and make them happy, astonish them, and that is a really beautiful thing. The woman who wouldn't otherwise have had a great memory that afternoon. Who wouldn't have had that great reaction. Who wouldn't have laughed, who wouldn't have smiled, who wouldn't have stayed up all night thinking about it, who wouldn't, in 20 years time, relate to your magic as an anecdote to her family and friends. I'll leave you to think about it - I'll analyse it closer if you'd like, but I'll leave it with you and just say this - I believe magic is inherently beautiful, and powerful. It's a beautiful thing we do, and it's a beautiful gift we have and a beautiful gift we can give to others.
Good luck with everything,
~praetoritevong
P.S - Note to all who read this: The book is brilliant, get it if you can.