“..... Besides, the world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters.
We’ve all got light and dark inside of us.
What matters is the part we choose to act on.”
Sirius Black - Order of the Phoenix
If you have been reading my blogs, you may have had some inkling that I am familiar with the Harry Potter series. For those who know me well, they laugh at what a huge fan I am, “always”. When I engage in conversation with them, I not only share with them some piece of one of the stories that has relevance in that moment, reciting line for line the appropriate passage, but then I encourage them to read the books, no,I think more or less I tell them to read the books and then explain to them why.
The first time you read through the entire series, you are pulled into the story, playing your own part in concert with the main characters; their feelings and emotions, challenges and pain, triumphs and shortfalls. They touch off memories of stories in your own life, the same feelings and emotions you shared, successes and failures accumulated, still moving forward on the path chosen. Or is it destiny. But the most relevant of the story for me is how Harry always believed or perceived Snape’s despise of his father and then of himself as misaligned and unwarranted. That is, until the last installment, when he finds out the truth and now the world as he believed or thought he knew for the last seven years comes to a screeching halt and he will then be brought back to the very beginning and recount every second of every minute of every event with a whole new perspective, the truth of what actually was. And truth as opposed to a lie colors a story very differently.
However, the second and third time you read through the series, (and this I would tell all with earnest, that you have to read it multiple times), you will begin to come out of the story and become more of an observer. At this vantage point you begin to see all of the truths and wisdom, guidance and support that provides universal truths or a more spiritual bent and you realize the parallels of the current reality we are all experiencing here on a very real platform are all contained between books 1 and 7 of the Harry Potter series. Now, of course, here in our Muggle world there aren’t Wizards and wands and Hogwarts and Quidditch. But there is division and collisions between light and dark, there are those who feel superior and those they deem inferior, there are those enslaved, creatures treated cruelly, a ministry in denial of the reality, the truth buried by those holding on to power and the plight of those most courageous, standing at the front lines.
There are struggles, both individual and en masse, there are heroes and heroines and cowards and bullies. There is the erosion of the status quo with fear and ignorance used as weapons and the endless struggles to walk the line or rise above no matter what. Confusion, division, lies and fear fuel each page and the choices made and consequences received. Everyone is accountable. There is even a vote that was put forth to all of the readers at the point where they must decide whether they trust a certain pivotal individual.
As this year was ushered in and crashed headlong into the lockdown of our world, I began to see parallels to this series I had read more than twenty times and quoted from frequently, actually happening outright. As the months dragged on, I felt it and saw it more and more to the point that I started to share my thoughts in conversations with friends and strangers alike. “We are watching the Deathly Hallows Part 2 play out right in front of us, real time”, I would tell them. And we are.
A few months ago, I pulled into a gas station to fill up my gas tank. The attendant, after setting up the pump, walked by my window and commented that he liked the stickers I had on my car; Dobby on the left passenger window, the Deathly Hallows symbol on the right one and the Marauders map credo; “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good….” on the back and we shared our love for HP. When my tank was full and I had paid, he began to walk away, at which I hesitated and then called out to him, “Doesn’t it feel like the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is playing out here, right now, ?”
He replied, “ I have been feeling like that since the beginning of this year. It is the Deathly Hallows Part 2.” We looked at each other in silent acknowledgement.
Recently, while I was in LA visiting my very dear friend Ingrid & family, we were driving down to Hollywood, where they had recently moved from, so that I could see first hand the destruction and abandonment that was left from the protests. Stopped at a light, I happened to look at the side of a building facing the road and spied an ad of Harry Potter in the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and the portending announcement, “IT ALL ENDS 7.15”. The Harry Potter movie series ended with the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 2011 so it had been there, on the side of this building for at least the last nine years. When I brought it to Ingrid’s attention, she mentioned that it was odd that she never saw that sign as she had traveled this road everyday. She assured me that it would not have been something she would miss - and yes, Ingrid is a fan. I made her wait when the light finally turned green so that I could grab this picture, noted above.
I do not wish to give away any more of the story because there are so many people who have not, for some reason or another, read it. You may have watched the movies, maybe more than once, however, if you are alive today and living in the same world that I am, I implore you to read the books. For then you will not only see how this all ends, but you will also learn how you find hope and strength and courage and conviction. How you rise and fall, and how you never stay down and what keeps you going. And even though you may not realize that you play any part in the world around you, that all of us, in some small way, contribute, whether good or bad, but always by choice, to the whole world in which we live.
So, how will your story end?
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