I was driving Sydney home from the airport the other day, and I got a little lost on the way back. I found myself on Brooklyn streets that were so familiar to me, more emotionally familiar than physical. There was the obvious reason why - it used to be where I lived - but more than that, I felt the gravity of returning to somewhere where so much happened. I drove along the streets where I used to walk home from work everyday... near the place where I stayed, so homesick, my very first night in New York... past a corner where I had kissed someone in the rain... by a restaurant where I had had a horrible date... near the building where my sister and I had lived together... past the apartment of person with whom I'd had the most frustrating romance of my life. This was the place where I did so much growing up.
It felt like unexpectedly bumping into an old lover, someone you had really cared about, but hadn't seen in a long time. All those me memories come flooding back, all the emotions. You sit down and talk and remember events, places, friends, what he wore, what you said. It feels like it just happened, and at the same time it feels like a movie you saw once a long time ago. You wonder what it would be like if you got back together, after all the time and all of the changes you've gone through. Maybe you feel that you left too soon or too casually. But you know that you're already gone, and if there was something that you had left undiscovered, it's not there anymore.
As I drove over the Manhattan bridge, heading home, this song came on the radio, and it felt right.
I just finished reading the whole of the Harry Potter series, and I can't stop thinking about it. (As an added measure of masochism, I Josh and I finished the last season on The Wire within the same 24 hours.....right now I am like a ship lost at sea!) I am so impressed by J.K Rowling....It's just brilliant! The characters have become friends of mine, and I feel as though I could take a trip to Hogwarts at any time to visit my old professors.
Clearly, I am a bit behind the curve when it comes to the Harry Potter craze, but when they first came out I wasn't allowed to read them. I attended a very conservative Christian grade school, and if teachers caught even a whiff of "witchcraft" in any children's literature, game, or toy it was banned immediately. Notices were sent to all parents strictly prohibiting Harry Potter books being brought to school, as anything having to do with witchcraft or magic was a kin to Satanism (not kidding about this!).
But now having read the books, I have no idea how they could have come to that conclusion (although I am sure none of the teachers had read them). Every facet of Harry Potter speaks of moral responsibility, loyalty, family and making choices based not on what is convenient in the moment but rather what is good and right. Rowling's stories gracefully mature with the reader, taking on more trying subject matter as the characters age. There are such beautiful lessons to learn.
And they're just downright fun! I can hardly wait to read them to my own children, when that time comes!
J.K. Rowling is truly a remarkable woman, not only for the beautiful work that is Harry Potter, but for the person she is. What a gift to have lived a life like hers and still have all of this joy and fun and imagination to share..........
