I wish I had my head in the sand at the age of 9 when the school librarian asked me if I wanted to read this new book that just came out.
I walked into the library at Twin Creeks Elementary, just looking for something to do, somewhere to go with my active imagination while my peers were still lost in something I'd surpassed, wondering what the next adventure would be. They, frought with peril as to how to finish, the ink gliding across their drooping eyelids, were lost in the real world of television and video games.
I saw, and see, books the way children saw, and continue to see, movies and video games - my escape. And I knew, if I could visualize what I was reading, feel that I was physically in the story, it was worth reading, worth getting my young hopes up for. Hopes, that never rose as high with other activities that did the imagining for the viewer.
And somehow,I wish that we had a longer lunch recess that day, or that the library was arbitrarily closed, so that the feeling I'm left with now, over 12 years later, wouldn't be so strong, so oddly controlling. Honestly, as strange as it is to say, I feel that I'm going through a breakup with my childhood. I have to say goodbye to "The Boy Who Lived", and yet, really don't want to. My mind and heart are in different worlds, each pulling at the other to join them in their reality.
If I had just walked away, I wouldn't have this annoying feeling that I'm losing something very important to me, something that's been with me for over a decade. The most formidable years of my life were spent in Hogwarts learning of a whole new world I wish I could have transported to somehow. I should have stopped myself from staring at the colorful cover carrying the boy with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead riding a broomstick, should have turned away and told Mrs. Librarian that I didn't know how to read. I should have lied and ran away.
And now, with the second part of the seventh Harry Potter movie series coming out in less than 24 hours, I'm left to wonder what I'm supposed to do with myself. Will there ever be another series that leaves me desiring more? Will I ever find another 1000 page book in less than 8 hours simply to reach the end, to know who died and who lived, to understand the wise words of professors and laugh out loud at the humor of twin boys who joke for a living?
Yes.
It's pushed me to realize that I may never find another series such as this one, but never reading one isn't entirely out of the question. It's pushed me into Starbucks and Pete's Coffee, with my laptop and notebook in hand, creating characters and ideas from whatever pops into my head at the time. It's pushed me to see that one's dreams don't stop at watching someone else live them; one's dreams, though delicately finite and fleeting, should propel you into alternate universes, ones that you create.
It's pushed me to see that Hogwarts didn't just show me Harry's life, but Rowling's life. And yes, I will miss it, but regret it? Never. For through it, my body grew with age, my heart with compassion, and most importantly, my mind with endless possibilities and consequent daydreams.
So until the first chapters of my fantasies come through the wire to those trusted enough to read it, I'm putting below my favorite quotes from my favorite book series, for you avid readers to ponder. Enjoy!
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"The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."
--
"The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing."
--
"Oh, very good," interrupted Snape, his lip curling. "Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. 'Ghosts are transparent.'"
--
"To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
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"Humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them."
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"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
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"It’s the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."
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"It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated."
--
"You don't want to bottle your anger up like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, beaming. "There might be a couple people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."
--
So top grade's O for 'Outstanding,'" she [Hermione] was saying, "and then there's A-"
"No, E," George corrected her, "E for 'Exceeds Expectations.' And I've always thought Fred and I should've got E in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for the exams."
--
"Harry!" said Fred, elbowing Percy out of the way and bowing deeply. "Simply splendid to see you, old boy--"
"Marvelous," said George, pushing Fred aside and seizing Harry's hand in turn. "Absolutely spiffing."
Percy scowled.
"That's enough, now," said Mrs. Weasley.
"Mum!" said Fred as though he'd only just spotted her and seizing her hand too. "How really corking to see you--"
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Until next time...
