The Little Witch frowned. The *love spell* issue, yet again. She replied, "I can't *make* anyone do anything. People have their own free will. Do as you truly will, so long as it doesn't harm anyone. That means respecting other people, and that means respecting their free will too. If you don't, you end up *hurting* other people as well as yourself. As for whether people like me, I try to simply be myself and, like I said, I try to respect other people and their free will. After that, people can like me or not, as they choose."

    The girls were quiet for a moment. They didn't expect to meet a Witch, but they assumed a Witch had "powers" and that her magic would look like special effects, and that a Witch could command or control others. What Little Witch had said didn't sound like what a Witch was, and they said so.

    "So, like, what good are you? You sound like anybody else." The first girl was becoming confused.

    "Exactly," replied Little Witch. "I *am* just like anybody else. I have a job; I have a family, and I spend most of my day trying to take care of those things."

    The second girl joined in: "But, can you change things? I mean, like, can you make things happen?"

    The Little Witch smiled. "Girls, a Witch isn't someone who makes things happen, like making things appear out of thin air. A Witch is someone who helps things happen, naturally, in special ways."

    The Little Witch paused and continued. "If you want to *know* how things physically happen in the world, in Nature, study science. The word "science" means knowledge, and it's the knowledge of Nature's physical laws and how Nature physically works. And if you want to *make things happen,* study technology: engineering, chemistry, physics, computers, that kind of stuff."

    "Science and technology are about Nature's physical laws and the ways that people can use those to cause physical changes. In fact, science and its physical applications, technology, are the most consistently effective ways that human beings have devised to understand and cause physical changes."

    "After all, the TV, the microwave oven, modern medicine, and pretty much everything we use in daily life came through patient, dedicated study of Nature's physical laws (science) and trying to use that knowledge to make physical changes (technology). Those things *didn't* come from waving a magic wand; they came from science and technology."

    Little Witch continued, "Just remember that people don't *change* Nature, and they can't *conquer* Nature either. People and the world around us *are* Nature, or, more accurately, parts of Nature. Remember that we are part of Nature, and therefore remember to take care of Nature, and then science and technology can be wonderful."

    "Besides, there's good money to be made in science and technology, especially in computers, and there are not nearly enough women in those fields. So, by studying -- really hard-- science and math and technology, you could learn how to "make things happen" and, make money too !"

    The girls were really confused now. They expected to hear about magic and spells and instead they heard --from a Witch! -- about science and technology and *stuff*! Before the girls could protest, Little Witch went on:

    "Now, if you want to learn how to change the world by changing people, let me give you a piece of advice. Learn how to change *yourself* first. That doesn't mean doing whatever the heck you feel like or not thinking about other people. Quite the opposite is true: we define ourselves most often by how we deal with the world and the people in it."

    "The point is, you *can't* change someone else. We can influence others, but we can only ever truly change ourselves. But here's the mysterious part: We can change ourselves only by going outside of ourselves --through other people or through the world or interiorly through our deepest selves. Either way, we can discover the inter- connection of all people and all reality."

Continued