I wouldn’t call myself a Harry Potter nerd, but I could hold my own when it came to trivia about the story, the movies, the actors and the author of the story. I was in the Rehab Hospital when one of the movies was released and our oldest son pulled a copy so I could watch it. The author J.K. Rowling originally wrote the books in a British version and while they are in English, there are some things that need to be interpreted for the United States audience. I have all the books in the United States version and most of them in the British version. It’s a great study on the concept of language!

Matt read some of the books to me when I couldn’t yet read and when I started reading, those books were at the top of my list to read. My memory is so bad, it doesn’t count as rereading! (Something I’ve added to my learning post stroke.)

Now for movies — Matt and I look at movies from a different perspective. Not surprisingly, from where I am today, I look at movies from an entertainment value. Can it keep my attention for 90 minutes? Matt is much more focused on the ‘continuity’ during a movie (more technical). Some of the things he notices are as follows: What time is on the clock? Is the person holding their coffee mug in their right hand or left hand? Have they always been left or right handed? Which direction is the logo facing? Is it the same cup that was used before? Now let’s step back a bit more and talk about a movie series. It could be years between the release of a movie and the next one. How does one convey the concept of continuity in that case? Most people will tell you that part of the attraction of the Harry Potter movies was the brilliance of casting. Pretty much the same actors were in all the movies. In many ways, we saw those actors grow up and consequently saw the growth in ourselves. In January, Alan Rickman died (he was the actor who played Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies). Most people had pretty strong feelings about his character. Somebody sent a tweet to the author about Alan Rickman when he died. She had been instrumental in the casting and had thought a great deal about continuity. She had probably written 3 or 4 of the books when they decided to make the movies. She was the main person who knew the story. When Alan Rickman was cast for the part of Professor Snape, he talked to her to get an understanding of how he should play the complex character. As he finished the work on the Harry Potter movies, he revealed that author J.K. Rowling once shared one tiny, little, left of field piece of information that helped him realize that there was more to the sneering Hogwarts potion master than Harry or anyone else might have known.

In December we went to see the latest Star Wars movie (another series) — The Force Awakens (Episode 7). When they decided to make the Star Wars movie, one of the things they (the investors) looked at was talking to J.K. Rowling. How do you cast so there is continuity? In the late 70s, the first Star Wars movie premiered — that was Episode 4. Episodes 5 and 6 which came out in the 80’s were very popular. They changed the way we thought about things. In the late 90’s, Episode 1 was released, followed by Episodes 2 and 3. Those three were not as good. The story was very good, but the actors lacked depth and weren’t compelling. Could Episode 7 redeem the popular franchise? There was quite a bit hanging on that idea. They chose a director who could look backwards and forwards. So one can see how the whole aspect of continuity became a big deal.

Now I’m going back to that question that somebody asked J.K. Rowling about Alan Rickman. I really liked Alan Rickman and consequently had a hard time seeing him as a villain or any kind of bad guy. (It’s my own thing!) Now that’s a great testament to doing one’s craft. What was it that she told him? Her response to the question was ‘I told Alan what lies behind the word always‘. Isn’t that great? I love that! I see it as ‘act like you belong’. I don’t think there is an easy answer (not like skipping 50 pages), but as a metaphor for life, it really stands out. I think people should celebrate victories, but I do think we can be genuine about our celebrations and show our enthusiasm and still act like we belong. I often say “it’s easier to dress down than dress up!”. Have you ever gone to an event and felt dressed down by comparison to others? I hope you read the guest post Alison Shapiro Bonds wrote on Mindful Attention where she says “Mindfulness is the practice of bringing relaxed, openhearted, non-judgmental attention to what is happening right now, right here, in this present moment.” I love the whole idea of mindfulness! I think it’s a great way to get to the concept of act like you belong! It’s a complex thing that requires us to always be aware of life.

Over the last week I have watched all of the Harry Potter movies. Some of them came out before I I had the stroke and the others I’ve watched since the stroke. I can tell people exactly what it was about the stories that made them compelling. With everything I know now, would I look at the first few differently? I completely missed the ‘always’ part the first time I saw Part 2 of The Deathly Hallows. Now so much more makes sense!

Act like you belong!