Paint and Pages

The Magic of the Misfit

What is your favorite apple?

Has it always been your favorite apple? Has it always been around?

Did you know many types of apples have vanished? Apple aficionados scour floorboards in older homes searching for seeds of these long-forgotten apples.

Agricultural archaeologists.

A colleague shared some thinking recently that has sparked a kindling of hope: magic as an ethos of when reality exceeds expectations.

When we’re facing narratives that we don’t belong, it is easy to discard the best parts of ourselves and only focus on fixing the flaws. 

But that is silly. That assumes that everyone else knows what is worth keeping and what needs to be discarded. And if 2026 has shown us anything it’s that what’s popular is a very poor indicator of what is quality and what holds value. That this kind of thinking can excuse harm that rejects the very parts we should be preserving.

The magic we extinguish by insisting on sameness.

In the University of Minnesota’s apple program, an experimental apple line was nearly discarded before a scientist decided it deserved another chance. That apple eventually became the Honeycrisp.

Makes you wonder how many remarkable things are lost because they were misunderstood too early.

What happens when we try to grow a seed in toxic soil? Even if it’s a fascinating, healthy, spectacular seed?

It can’t grow. 

What happens when we only measure ourselves using the rulers we’re handed? When we unconsciously adopt the axiology of others? We may discard the best parts of ourselves as unlovable. 

Been chewing on magic as an ethos and battling a question that is essential to our human existence: What is the best flavor of ice cream? 

Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry are all great in their own way, right? Yet, they have to be pretty special to be magical. Often, they’re just ice cream meeting ice cream standards, which is pretty great, still, expected.

But what kind of ice cream exists outside these standards? Exceeds our simple expectations by transcending ice cream reality?

Another thought: what is the worst candy you’ve ever tasted? Like, if you were starving at a ball game, you probably wouldn’t take it if they were handing it out free at concessions. 

I once hated on Bit-O-Honey on social media and a friend challenged my thinking by giving me a bag of freeze-dried Bit-O-Honey. Holy moly. That introduced me to the magic that is the world of freeze-dried candy. A whole new love for the candy I was so certain I’d hated had been uncovered by one small change in conditions. 

Recontextualization.

What if the right combination of ingredients and conditions can make something forgotten and discarded magical? 

Now, picture a circus peanut. That orange squishy styrofoam peanut thing I’m not even sure where you can purchase these days. They just kind of show up places uninvited. Those odd toe-like candies that aren’t quite taffy, or gummy, or cotton candy, or marshmallow, and comically as unlike a peanut as imitation banana extract is to the actual flavor of a banana. 

Who is eating these circus peanut things?

Was it ever magical? What is the ethnography of the circus peanut? Who sat in that room where it happens and gave this curious tacky little thing their stamp of approval?

Was the candy market so bland at the time that it was instantly loved? Were the only competitors peppermints and saltwater taffy?

I worry reality would disappoint so I’m intentionally not Googling. 

My babies and I love to visit Ted & Wally’s in Omaha, Nebraska’s Old Market. Ice cream meets creativity and a renaissance of rethinking ice cream. You can ride in a horse and buggy on brick-paved streets and find plenty of fun and quirky culture in this Midwest gem. 

Ted & Wally’s occasionally makes circus peanut ice cream, and it’s so wacky and wonderful. It just works.🥜

I suppose we all have parts of ourselves that are a bit like the misfit circus peanut…just needing the right environment to become something magical again. Our flavor profiles liberated from the constraints of expectation.🌇

Other wild Ted & Wally’s flavors we adore: plum wine, peanut butter & jelly sandwich, Biscoff, and sweet corn.

A few are not for me, yet still delightful to try: Guinness, Rice Krispies, lychee.

A few I hope to someday try: jalapeño cream cheese, lemon Oreo, and Lucky Charms and cotton candy. 

Magic. Loving this lens. Let in gratitude. Let go of assumptions. 

Look again. Consider all the magic in the things you’ve discarded. ✨

There’s a whole world out there ready to love the magic of the misfit.