On the 20th Anniversary of Harry Potter, I would like to honor J.K. Rowling and her creative contribution our collective imagination by introducing us all to Harry Potter. An entire generation has grown up with Harry and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
Thank you, J.K. Rowling. Thank you for shining your light and sharing your gift with the world.
I remember seeing the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in the late 90s. I was at my brother’s house and the book was on an end table in the family room. My niece was reading it and I asked her about it. She told me it was about a boy wizard who went to a school called Hogwarts. The next few months I kept hearing about it, committing to read it someday.
Unless you have kids of your own, other things take precedence over reading children’s books and I never got around to reading it until right before the first movie came out in 2001.
I enjoyed both the book and movie so much that I went on to read more of the novels, though regretfully, I never finished the series. I hope to someday.
The thing that struck me most was that J.K. Rowling had brought forth a magical world that has become entwined in our consciousness in a purely imaginative way. It allowed us to see the world differently from how we experienced it up until that point.
You see profiles of people on Facebook who say they are Hogwarts graduates and professors. Some adults are using their imagination to change how they view their childhoods. Instead of reliving unpleasant memories, we can reframe our past and see it in a whole new light. We can create happy thoughts.
When young children play, they can go deep into their fantasy and really feel that they are the characters that they imagine. Why do adults forget to play like that? Why do we call it pretending? Is it because we are afraid of what other adults will think?
What if we allowed ourselves to be whatever awesome playful character we choose to be at any moment? Our playfulness might spread to others and everyone could lighten up, smile and laugh. Wow! Life would take on a whole new level of magic!
We are all magical beings with abilities to create worlds of wonder. J.K. Rowling showed us where her imagination took her. Where does your imagination take you?
Always,
Alice Always