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"Do not pity the dead..."

My son and I had read the first three Harry Potter books together a few years ago.  I had also seen the first two movies in theaters.  2001 was a watershed year for me, containing many significant events in my life.  My then-fiancé Jim and I went to see the first Harry Potter together, five years before our son would be born.  Jim was also excited about the soon-to-be released Lord of the Rings movie - he had read the books 12 times.  He said the books were assigned for school, which he wasn't too happy about at first, but then he really got into them.

After seeing the first two movies though, I shied away from the Harry Potter series.  I could tell from the parade of headlines, previews, and news snippets I caught here and there that the story was getting more complex, grim and violent, which didn't appeal to me.  In 2011 however, just before the release of the final movie, we had a membership to Universal Studio/Islands of Adventure and frequented the newly-minted Harry Potter-land quite often.  We took in the excited park goers, many of them decked out in Potter regalia and armed with their own wands from the park's installment of Ollivander's.  Still I didn't quite get it.  Yes - the movies had been really good - but where did this feverish fandom and devotion come from?

Fast forward over eight years later.  My son and I just finished the last movie yesterday.  And I sit here, four months after losing Jim, his death unfolding before my eyes.  Maybe that's why I get it now, like I never did before.  I think about the stories' themes of death and losing loved ones, and the lessons conveyed: If you love someone then they are never gone.  They are always with you, they are always alive inside you.  They will help bear you through the evil in life, and evil cannot touch them now.  And Harry's mother, Dobby, Fred, Lupin, so many others sacrificed themselves out of love.  That is the highest and purest form of love.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling.  And you're right; words are an incredible source of magic - one to which we all have access.


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