Harry Potter and the Choices We Make

For the few people in the universe who are unfamiliar with J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, rest assured that this post contains no spoilers. Twenty-five years ago this June, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (retitled Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S.) burst onto the scene and captured the imagination of the world. Children especially thrilled to the exploits of young wizard Harry and his best friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Children are fascinated by tales of magic. With very little control in their own young lives, kids enjoy the idea of waving a magic wand and causing dreams to come true, troubles to be banished, and sometimes vengeance to be served. Harry Potter is appealing because he is like each and every one of us. He has fears and insecurities, longs for love and companionship, gets angry, and can even be cruel at times. This very humanity, and not all the magic spells and strange creatures that inherit the Harry Potter world, are what make the books as compelling as they are.

Very early on in the series, the major theme of the novels is revealed. Towards the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore reassures a troubled Harry, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” The choices Harry makes are at the heart of the seven books in the Harry Potter oeuvre. Harry faces extreme danger, ostracism, and betrayal in his epic battle against arch-nemesis Lord Voldemort. Beset by difficult choices and usually alone in having to make them, Harry continues to choose good over evil, right over expediency. In the final book, his battle against the evil Dark Lord even takes on religious overtones.

Ironically, many Christian churches have denounced the Harry Potter series for its depictions of magic and wizardry. According to the Toledo Library, Harry Potter books are the most banned books of the 21st Century. What critics fail to recognize is that the wizarding world is merely a backdrop to explore Rowling’s themes of friendship, integrity, kindness, and understanding – along with the epic struggle, of course, between good and evil.

The Harry Potter books ask us to consider our choices and what they say about us. I can’t think of anything I’d want more for my children and grandchildren to explore.

Gator Aid*

I have a new contact in my cell phone since moving to Florida: the Nuisance Alligator Hotline. Now, I don’t live near a nature preserve or the kinds of bodies of water that gators frequent. But after reading numerous stories of alligators near homes and in residential swimming pools, I’m not taking any chances.

Recently alligators in Southwest Florida have been encountered crossing busy streets, approaching residents’ front doors, and in one case, breaking into a garage and destroying a cache of Diet Coke. A pit bull was killed by an alligator in Venice, Florida, after it got too close to the lake where the gator was swimming. In another incident, a photographer lost his Go Pro camera after a gator he was trying to film grabbed and mauled it at Big Cypress National Preserve.

Apparently it’s mating season for the lumbering but scary reptiles. In search of mates, alligators become more active and go from pond to pond seeking their true love. I remember years ago touring a housing development in Bradenton, Florida, and seeing an alligator sunning itself by a small lake on the property. Indeed, reports of gators on golf courses and public roads increase during April and May as the lovelorn creatures roam around looking for a mate.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) actually has a Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program that allows residents to call a hotline and have dangerous alligators removed by trained trappers. The FWC considers alligators more than four feet long and in situations that endanger people or property to be a nuisance. So just in case, I’ve got the hotline number at the ready.

And there are ways to prevent an alligator attack. The FWC urges residents and visitors to keep dogs on a short leash away from water, swim only during the day in designated bodies of water, and refrain from feeding alligators or leaving out food that might attract them. Sounds reasonable enough.

There are many pluses to living in the Sunshine State: warm weather and greenery year-round, access to beaches and the ocean, and the aforementioned sunshine. But oversized scary creatures are some of the drawbacks to life in sunny Florida. Don’t get me started on the snakes and giant bugs!

*Source of alligator information for this article from Sarasota Patch.