"Harry, A History" by Melissa Anelli

Wow.

I started reading this book a few weeks ago on the computer. Unlike a lot of blindies, I don't like reading books this way. Audio is my preferred format...well, Braille too, but obtaining a great book in Braille is only slightly easier than winning the California lottery. So, while I was enjoying the book, it was hard to stay focused on it.

On Saturday afternoon, I stumbled into a listing for the book on Audible.com. It had just been released there as an audio book a couple of weeks ago. I was very happy. I would get to read this intriguing book in a format that was more suited to my reading style. Great!

I knew about the book, released in printed form toward the end of last year, because its author, Melissa Anelli, runs The-Leaky-Cauldron.org, and hosts, along with others, the PotterCast podcast...both of which I'm very much a fan of. She's a funny, vivacious, and entertaining reporter, who has worked tirelessly for Potter fans such as myself...always bringing us the latest news as it breaks.

What unfolded off and on over the next 28 hours or so was amazing. The book exceeded any expectations I could have possibly had for it. On the OWL grading scale, it was definitely an O.

The book tells the story of the Harry Potter Phenomenon from all the angles that really matter: The birth of the fandom, its online explosion, J.K. Rowling's thoughts and genesis, the films, and the friendships that intersected, joined, and reenforced it all.

It's also Melissa's personal journey, from a somewhat closeted Potter fan sneaking reads between classes in college, through her rise to a strange sort of fan-fandom by the time the final installment of the series hit book shelves around the world.

To say I loved this book, would be an under statement of the most ridiculous level. It made me laugh. It made me cry. And, it gave me an escape on Sunday evening after some upsetting news came to me.

So much of it I could relate to, both in- and outside the Potter fandom. I was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore the night of the release of "Order of the Phoenix". I stood in that throng of people, many thousands of miles away from Melissa and her friends, but I experienced it in just the same way. It gave me the ability to relive the three midnight releases I'd attended in a way that I thought nothing ever could.

I can relate to the strange sense of unreality when Melissa is recognized and treated practically as royalty by other fans, when considering herself as just another fan in her own mind. I've been, for many years, a somewhat visible fan in the "Masters of the Universe" fandom, and have been stopped and treated much the same way by fans from He-Man.org at conventions.

The story of Heather, a girl who was told she had only months to live and inexplicably recovered, strangely mirrored my own story when, as a child, I too had become quite ill. For Heather, Harry Potter was her refuge. For me, it was Masters. I, too, experienced an inexplicable and miraculous recovery.

There will never be another Harry Potter book...not like those first seven, anyway. That feeling of anticipation, and reading the next installment of the saga will never come again. You can only read a book for the first time once...

Reading "Harry, A History" was as close to an eighth Potter installment as I could ever hope for. No, it wasn't the same. How could it be? But it gave me all the same feelings. It made me relive the fandom and the love for a boy wizard and his friends in a entirely fresh way that I thought was wholly lost, no matter how enduring that love has remained.

I wish I'd had the courage to say hello to Melissa and company last year at the San Diego Comic Con, when I attended their PotterCast panel.

If you're a Potter fan...and maybe even if you're not...you should read this book. It's a wonderful, emotional, and thoroughly incredible ride.

All I can say is...

Wow.

'cause I Gotta Have Faith

A few weeks ago, someone challenged my religious views, based largely on my political opinions. As a liberal, I don't believe religion should have any part whatsoever in government...at least, not as long as we advocate for religious freedom. Religious freedom is one of the things that America has been built upon, and by legislating based on any faith, you are automatically infringing upon others' rights, not to mention flying in the face of the very liberties this country has been founded on. Religion and politics should not mix. The rest of this post, which are merely my own personal musings, will not focus on the political side of this at all. Instead, I want to examine the charges leveled against my beliefs in the religious context.

Before going forward, however, I should note two crucial points. One is that I don't expect to change anyone's mind. The vast majority of people of any religious stripe are so close-minded in this regard, that nothing anyone says will even be taken into consideration. To them, there is no room for discussion. To them, they are right and everyone else is wrong, and the morality, validity, or even the consistency of their beliefs is irrelevant in their eyes. I pity them. The other is that I was raised and continue to be a Christian, though admittedly not a wholly orthodox one by conventional standards.

The gist of the accusation that was brought to bare was that, if I did not follow the doctrine of the church, as presented in the canonical gospels, I was an ignorant, lost soul, who knew nothing of Christianity. The Bible, in their view, was to be taken literally, unquestioningly, and to be interpreted exactly as the Catholic church originally intended it to be. This last part is important. It was the Catholic church that originally determined what was or was not canon in the original gospels. It was the Catholic church which edited, reinterpreted, and even altered the texts for hundreds of years after Jesus lived and died. This is a matter of undisputed historical fact.

The next part of the argument for those who subscribe to unquestioning faith in the church is typically something to the effect of, "Well, God wanted it that way. The texts were only changed based on how He wanted them changed, and therefore must still reflect his ultimate word." This point breaks down in several key areas.

First, these folks who call themselves Christians and believe that the Almighty must have guided the edits of the holy texts over the centuries are the same people who say they revere the words of Jesus and his Disciples above all else. Yet, they have no qualms about the fact that what they are reading in their modern Bibles are not necessarily the words of their savior or his followers. They are effectively saying that, they revere the things that are falsely being reported about Christ over what he truly said or did, because at some point down the line, God had a light bulb go off in his head and thought, "Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have had him say that. Let's change it to this instead. There. That's better."

Second, the politics being played by the Catholic church over the centuries are easily discerned in historical retrospect. Many things were changed in the canonicals, not to make them more accurate, but to tighten Rome's hold over the masses, further agendas, and conform to the culture of the times.

Third, Christians, guided by whatever church they may follow, largely pick and choose which parts of the Old Testament are still valid arbitrarily. When asked why they do not adhere to certain rules and prescribed in Old Testament or Jewish law, they will say it is because the New Testament was meant to replace the old. And yet, they do not hesitate to point to passages in the Old Testament when it suits their purposes, or the political agendas of their church.

Finally, the biggest flaw in this kind of argument is so huge that I cannot fathom why it does not bother even them. Over the the intervening twenty centuries since Jesus performed his ministries, countless variations on the basic faith have emerged. Both Islamic and Mormon faiths, among others, have their routes in Christianity and the New Testament. If God only allows the Bible to be altered as he divines, then surely these faiths must also be of his design as well. If they are not, and it is possible for the holy Word of God to be desecrated by man, then it is possible...even highly probable...that the Catholic church is guilty of the same warping of the gospels.

In the end, I am more interested in the truth. If there is a higher power, and if He sent a messenger in the form of Jesus Christ to Earth to deliver it, then I want to know what that message was, not the message as it has been tailored by a power hungry church.

To that end, my mind is open. I have read the Gnostic Gospels. I have read the reports of the discovery of what may have been the tomb of Jesus and his family. I believe that the Catholic church has wrongly vilified Mary Magdalene, a woman who even many modern Christians celebrate, though the reasons why have been largely obscured by the dark veil the church has tried to place over the Bible.

The church, beginning with the Catholic and spreading outward to most, if not all, the denominations in the world, is a cancer upon Christianity. As long as we Christians continue to follow their lead like blind, brainless, senseless sheep, the malignant seeds planted centuries ago will continue to eat away at the true message of our faith.

"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you," Jesus is reputed to have said. Is that what we're doing when we deny loving couples the right to marry? Is that what we're doing when we force our faith upon those who do not share it?

I am not saying that everyone should follow the road that I have walked upon, far from it. Spirituality is a private journey. The path we travel is different for each and every one of us. I believe that whatever higher power is out there knows that. In the end, the core of every religion teaches us to love. The roads to get their, and the details along the way may be different...but the basic message is always the same.

It's time we started listening.