I failed to share my thoughts on Heroes for yesterday but I believe strongly in the needs and presence of heroes, so when I find/make the time, I will go back and fill in that gap. What I didn’t fail to do was recharge. I needed some time to refill my batteries and having someone around who can honor your needs for late in the day naps and lack of people is an amazing thing. Thank you for that. Thank you for so much more than that… like reigniting my passion for reading… something I had forgotten to make time for in far too long and now I can’t imagine NOT making time for the same. Like my preference in movies and music, I don’t know that I require “good” as much as I require “make me feel something” in the books I read. Happy, sad, enraged, heart-broken – it doesn’t matter, just let me feel the emotions that real life tells me to keep bottled up.
Today’s prompt is a Book Report and it fits so well with the accidental theme for the month. Right now, I’m reading Speaker for the Dead
For today I want to talk about not a book but a series that made me feel a whole lot more than I anticipated when I first cracked open the first in a series. Harry Potter.
Yes, it is a series of fantasy literature intended for children but the themes within are so much more than that. The writing becomes more and more advanced as you progress through the series and was clearly intended to progress as a child might as they too become more mature. I have friends who have eschewed the books as “children’s books” but as the brilliant J.K. Rowling talks of death and love, oppression and inequality, tolerance and bigotry, you realize that these are all themes that adults have more reference to than any child should.
I’ll admit that each of the tender moments of that confusing thing called love, or the heart wrenching moments of loss moved me to tears. Tears. Big ugly cry tears. In both the books and the movies. Enough can’t-catch-my-breath tears to make my movie watching/ book reading partner uncomfortable in the confusion of what the heck to do to comfort and left me feeling the need to just embrace the emotions that overwhelmed me.
We all know that I’m already an overly emotional person… and if you don’t know that, then you don’t know me at all.
Harry and the others face many crossroads in the series that force them to decide between what is right and what is easy and isn’t that life?
They collectively and separately face the reality of our ideals and vision of a person or group shatter under the weight of reality and choices. The idea that there’s more to a person than the one they allow the world to see was hardest for me. How often do we assume we know a person because of the mask that they show, ignorant to the trials and tribulations that led them to don the mask in the first place?
The characters grow up from a time where Quidditch is the most important thing in the world to a time where the ultimate self-sacrifice is needed to ensure the safety of the ones we love.
That said, yes I know it’s just a book. I don’t anticipate that any of us is going to have to throw ourselves literally on the alter of the Dark Lord to save the world, but on some level, aren’t we faced with decisions like this from time to time?
Decisions that we believe will destroy us but must be made for the benefit of those we love more than ourselves.
That’s where I was ten years ago. Making a decision that would impact myself and my children in ways I couldn’t imagine and while I felt like a part of me died, I knew that I was the only one who could prevent a greater loss. For them. And for me… Through the years, I’m lucky in that I’m often reminded that the decision was right. Sometimes we never know the benefit of the choices we make and have to do so on faith… In making that choice, I too grew stronger and wiser than ever before possible.
I think that’s part of the reason why I loved these books. I can relate. I can relate to the idea of being tired of having to be the one who can help. I grow weary of feeling like I’m all alone in solving the problems in front of me. I forget that even when I feel most alone, I’m really not if only I lean on those who have proven their support and love for me. Contrary to popular belief, my broom doesn’t fly and is only symbolic of the witch I can become…
Read these books. Read every one. Grab a Kleenex or two once you get to book 6 & 7.
And if you want your kids to read them, do what I did… Tell your kid that they can’t. I may or may not have mentioned to mini-me that he’s not allowed to read these yet… that they are just too grown up for him.
He almost immediately went to grab the first one when he thought I wasn’t looking.
There are far too many quotes within the series that echo in my mind to share… but here are a few for your perusing pleasure.
Katie Raczkowski’s pin on Pinterest.
A good book, or series in this case, is one you can easily read and read again and it is more than reading… it is visiting an old friend and this is one I plan to revisit. The movies do not do it justice in my opinion {but do they ever?} and so many things had to be cut to save time in the films… I still enjoyed the movies but the books … such powerful writing and imagery.
I have a fairly busy couple of weeks planned… but there’s a weekend I see in my future and do you know what I’ll be doing when that happens? Harry said it best:
It’s probably not a surprise that I’ll be reading. Something.
Looking for the whole list of prompts? They are in text form and image so you can Come Play In May!
Photo Credit goes to Gigei over at Devient Art. She does REMARKABLE work so you should definitely go check her out.
Love, love, love Harry Potter. I cried so hard when Dumbledore died. And let’s not get started about the fact that they were going to kill Buckbeak.
Love, love that series. I can’t wait to read it with Phee.