Tribute to Harry Potter

I don’t know why I became so attached to the Harry Potter series the way I did. Perhaps, it was because they came out when I was making a transition from child to adult and not really wanting to grow up, I was clinging to those magical things that only a child’s innocence can experience. Perhaps it was because, like Harry, I have a scar on my forehead although mine looks something more like the profile of a bobby pin than a lightning bolt. Nonetheless, I felt an attachment to Harry, something I’m sure all of you that have read the series have experienced as well. Over the last decade, we have gotten to know the characters so well and we’ve become so involved in the story.

I just finished reading the last book. I left Canada, three days before the book was released and believe you me I was thinking of calling my travel agent to postpone my flight, just so I could get my fingers on a copy. A little bit of something died when I turned that last page, the end of a journey that I’ve shared with so many people. For all of you who know me, the following won’t surprise you. I sat down to read the end of the book a few nights ago, curled up on my couch with a cup of cocoa. I had been racing through the book not only because it was hard to put down but I had to get the copy I borrowed back to its owner before she flew home to Ireland. Anyway I was sitting there and at one point my eyes welled up and I could hardly see the page anymore. I blurted out, “I’m such a sap!” while my housemate Caitlin, not realizing that I had been crying thought something had happened to me. I started laughing and crying and couldn’t control it (maybe I’ll attribute some of that to the heat). Anyway I settled back with some Kleenex and continued reading to the end.

My family and friends are already aware of how much of a geek I am for this sort of thing. So this tribute should not come as a surprise. I want to take the opportunity to thank those people that made reading the Harry Potter series a memorable experience.

To Sarah - for being the best night nurse there is, wiping my brow with a cold cloth and reading Harry Potter to me in a small cabin at Camp Hyanto when I was delirious with a fever of 102 in 2001

To my sister Tracey - for buying me glow-in-the-dark Harry Potter pajamas when everyone else thought I was too old for such things

To mom - for buying me all the books in hardcover because you wanted to make sure they would last for my children to read and for coming to the movies with me even though you hadn’t read the books yourself

To Val - for imparting in me the importance of storytelling and the parallels that run through the Harry Potter story and the story of our faith, and for letting us turn a church into Hogwarts

To the youth of St James - for laughing at me when I walked around dressed like Aragog with eight legs dangling from my sides and for humoring the interns when we turned a church into Hogwarts and made you make potion, read tea leaves, and perform charms.

To Ariana - for pronouncing Hermione as Her-moine, and for letting me drag you to the fifth Harry Potter movie before I left for Ghana

To my fuzzy buddy - who gave me a light up Harry Potter wand that I still have with me today and actually brought to the last movie with me

To J.K. Rowling - thank you for listening to your imagination on that train from Manchester to London, for letting the world remember what it is like to be a kid and for telling such a poignant story of good vs. evil that would make the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien proud