Week Seven : Spiritual Education

2007 was when the novel The Deathly Hallows was released, the final installment of the Harry Potter series. I was 8 and I was told that my reading level was ‘above average’ so I had my teacher, as well as, the librarians practically shoving this book series down my throat. My elementary school celebrated this event with posters, decorations, ect. Every time I was recommended to read Harry Potter I would shake my head and say that I wasn't interested in ‘witch books’. Boy, was my 8 year old self stupid, or what!?!? She only ever limited herself to reading Goosebumps.
Thanksgiving Day, 2017, began a three-day Harry Potter marathon on Freeform. Every film played back-to-back in chronological order for the entire weekend. I had seen the ads run repeatedly during commercial breaks and I saw this as my chance to finally sit down and watch a piece of history I had previously ‘slept on’. Welp. What can I say? I. LOVED. IT. And it became my obsession for about a year, though my obsession never prompted me to read the books. 
Well now's my time. This weekend I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling AND I had a bit of time to also read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (as well as, rewatch the 2018 movie adaptation. And I'm gonna try to rewatch the 2003 movie adaptation but I can't seem to find it anywhere). Surprise, surprise. I actually own both books. I had hoped to read them one day but they ended up gathering dust over the years, until today.
Something I noticed within Harry Potter that I hadn't before were the strong themes of love and death; sacrificial love and the fear of ultimate death, to be specific. The character Voldemort even stated within Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, “There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” This is a grim perspective of good vs. evil. In which challenges one's spiritual and moral views.
On the other hand, something I noticed within A Wrinkle in Time were the themes of love and the act of embracing our differences; themes closely related to personal challenges. The most iconic part of the book, being their arrival to planet Camazotz, teaches us that being the same is boring. It's truly a disturbing scene when all of the kids are shown bouncing their balls rhythmically; it's unnatural. Teaching audiences to ‘never judge a book by its cover’ and ‘expect the unexpected’.
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Here are some other spiritually educating readings/shows/movies that I like: The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018).

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