happy birthday, dear Harry

Today is Harry Potter's birthday. He is, I believe, 28.

Happy Birthday, Harry Potter.

I'm not one of those who never picked up a book until I met you (far from it, actually) but you have made my summer reading more pleasurable for being there.

Thanks.


{Here's a trippy little side note: In the Epilogue of The Deathly Hallows, we get a glimpse of Harry's future 19 years after he defeats Voldemort. Nineteen plus seventeen means he's 36 years old; so as of today, he hasn't yet lived that little snippet of his life.}

sometimes, life

In France, in a little town called St. Brieuc, lives this sculpture. I used to ride past it almost daily, on my bicycle.

It fascinated me, and occasionally I would stop and walk around it in wonder, feeling a kinship with this man of stone attempting to emerge a whole and formed being from the massive rock. He is attempting the impossible, every straining muscle attests to the difficulty of his task; and yet he has made progress, for there he is before our eyes emerging as something stronger and more defined than perhaps initially imagined.

This sculpture resonates with me because I understand that kind of struggle; it resonates with me because I want that kind of hope.

There are days when I look at this photograph and I know just how he feels.

the difficulty and theory of two

Here's my son. The two year old. He's a sweet kid, so I have watched his transition into the behavior that is often classified with his current age with interest. Since he is my third child I think I've been a little more philosophical about his tantrums and outbursts.

But I've also thought about it more.

I think the difficulty is this: your body isn't quite where your brain is. You know certain things can be done. You know what you want. But either you lack the ability to do it yourself, or to explain what it is you want to someone else. BUT YOU KNOW IT CAN BE DONE!!! and so you throw yourself on the floor screaming, because if you know something is available, then the wise all-knowing adult should be able to figure that out.

Unless you don't want help. Which is also a characteristic of Two. Because you are learning that you can do it yourself! Oh the power! The possibilities! THE FREEDOM! The Terrible Freedom Right Before Your Eyes. Do you run towards it? Away from it? Wrestle in down and scream in it's ear because it's making life difficult for you at times?

The answer is yes. All of the above.

I have a theory than being a teenager is simply an extension of being two. I just hope some of that red-hatted sweetness shows its way through the utter difficulty of being, yet not being, an adult -- like it does now.