A Penny for Your Thoughts

Most people consider fiction to be just that – fiction. But to many of us that grew up with these new forms of children’s stories, fiction became more of a reality to us than anything else.

The best example of this is Harry Potter – the books that almost every teenager grew up with, it taught us so much good, things that we can all still use today as adults.

It taught us that we are only human, that ego’s and greed are things that can hurt even the people that some consider good. It taught us that the only way to overcome our problems is to see ourselves as mortal and to accept that sometimes we are wrong. That we should always look to our own faults before tearing others down.

It taught us that you can move on from loss, that tragedy and loss are things we all go through and they’re things that we all have to learn to move on from in order to grow.

It taught us that we can overcome fear, for fear of a name increases the fear of the thing itself. Trying to pretend that something doesn’t exist will not help face and grow away from fear – the fear of something will almost always be worse than the actual thing that you are afraid of.

Harry Potter taught us that death is inevitable, that courage is complex and sometimes difficult. That we can make our own choices, that we must always question authority if we believe it to be wrong and that love is irreplaceable and our most important magic.

But most importantly, Harry Potter taught us that a life wasted is worse than death – a life spent in fear and suffering, in worry and stress, and without love is a life not lived at all.

As Dumbledore said, “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love.”