LIFE LESSON FROM A GEEK PART 4: HARRY POTTER- BEING YOURSELF AND ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

Before I continue this series about using pop culture (It really will be about all pop culture. I think the release of the book this week has Harry Potter planted firmly in my subconscious… and conscious) to teach my kids lessons, I want to clarify that by using these examples, I am not asking my kids to simply shed their personality and take on one of a fictional character in any given circumstance. I’m hoping to show them some concrete examples of values that I want to instill in them. I hope they take these examples, internalize them, put their own spin on them, and make them part of who they truly are (and will become). I’m not looking to raise conformist robots who approach every situation like the Terminator running through a list of responses in their CPUs. (“Hey Buddy do you have a dead cat in there?”)

They will have to find their own path, but it’s my job to help guide them. Especially while they are young. That makes this kind of awkward, because today’s lesson is on… how not to follow. It’s about how it’s ok… no it’s AWESOME to be your own person and follow your heart, no matter what others say. It’s also about doing all this while having the most positive attitude possible. So clearly today’s fictional role model must be Luna Lovegood.

When I first read The Order of the Phoenix, It took one paragraph for me to say “Oh I’m going to like this girl”. Well the next couple of pages helped too. She wears what she wants to wear (a butterbeer necklace), she reads how she wants to read (upside down of course), says what she wants to say (“Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”), and isn’t afraid to disagree with a group of people she just met. This last one deserves more than a parenthetical phrase.

When Luna is first introduced to the reader, she is sitting alone in a train compartment on her way to Hogwarts (she is alone a lot… but that is ok). Five teenagers enter her compartment. She only knows one of them. Three of them are older boys, one of whom is a celebrity. For many 14 year olds, this would instantly result in a case of anxiety which could only be treated with some conformity. Not Luna. When Luna drops her magazine, “The Quibbler”, Hermione makes fun of it. Instead of jumping in and agreeing or shrinking and remaining silent, Luna boldly states that her father is the editor. And boy did that shut the group up in a hurry. I want my kids to take note of that. They need to say what they believe, not take the temperature of a room before deciding what to say. They don’t need the stamp of approval from their peers. (If they also learn to stick up for their crazy father that would be cool too.)

Luna has another essential lesson to teach as well. Attitude is everything. Luna has no mother, people think she’s “Loony”, her classmates constantly take her belongings, and she doesn’t fit in. She has every right to be a dark miserable character. But she is not. Luna is happy. Genuinely happy. She sees the good in situations and in others. It seems that every misfortune Luna has suffered directly leads to a path to help someone else. The death of her mother allows her to see the Thestrals, which leads to her being able to calm Harry when he sees them for the first time. When Dobby dies, Luna speaks for her friends and gives a simple, beautiful and perfect eulogy. Because of her own quirkiness, Luna is the one who can understand how different and alone Harry feels sometimes. She is also the one who knows that sometimes a person needs to be alone. After the battle of Hogwarts, she whips up a quick Blibbering Humdinger in order to ensure that Harry gets the peace he needs. But the greatest power of Luna’s attitude shines through near the end of the Order of the Phoenix. She has a great outlook on her missing items “Oh, it's all good fun. But as this is the last night, I really do need them back.”

But that’s not it. The true virtue of her positive attitude reveals itself as Luna and Harry, two teenagers who have each lost people whom they love, stand in a dark courtyard. When it comes to comforting Harry about the death of his Godfather, again Luna knows just what to say:

*Harry Potter: Are you sure you don't want any help looking?
*Luna Lovegood: That's all right. Anyway, my mum always said things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end.
[they look up and see a pair of her shoes hanging from the ceiling arch]
*Luna Lovegood: If not always in the way we expect.

They have lost people they have loved… but they are never really gone. A found photograph, a familiar location, a song on the radio, the recollection of an inside joke, a sniff of perfume… “things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end”… if our attitudes will allow.