About a month ago I had a long (17hr) drive to entertain myself through, and I choose to listen to the book on CD, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (that's the seventh and final book, fyi). Sadly that book is much longer than 17 hours, and I didn't get a chance to read the rest of it until about a week ago. As I finished the book one evening I took interest in the attitude of Harry towards death, pain, and torture. For Mr. Potter it was not a bad thing to die, it was not hard to endure painful attacks and physical torture. It really hardly affected him at all. What did have a profound effect on him was the suffering and torture of his close friends and loved ones. An interesting theme in our modern media. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3 does all he can to avoid allowing his enemies to learn his true identity, preserving (he hopes) his wife's safety. I think that most people, despite their outward appearance or showing of selfishness, would act similarly valuing the safety of those they love above themselves, for that I believe is the definition of love. If there is a person that you are pained to see suffer, it's quite clear that your affections for them high, high enough to the point of being called love. It was later that night, after I had finished the book (don't worry everyone, Harry wins, in case you were wondering) that I talked with a friend that was suffering, having a bad day, and in need of a friend. Being aware of this friend's suffering and knowing there was simply nothing I could do one way or another to help alleviate it in anyway caused me to feel quite sad indeed. I began to realize the truthfulness that J. K. Rowling had endeavored to capture in what seems to be one of the central themes of Harry Potter, true friendship, and perhaps the true meaning of love.
I have had an interesting experience myself with the word love. Growing up I had the greatest friends a boy could ask for. I kid you not in any way, I would guess that the cumulative amount of true friendship that I had (the quality and the quantity) surpasses that of anyone reading this blog. Not that I'm bragging, I didn't have anything to do with it, the Lord gave them too me. I was forced away from those friends at the height of our friendship, and it was only then that I realized my love for them. Having know them for ~13 years, I realized that I had never once told any of them that I love them. After that I signed all my letters, "Love, Michael" and I began to let them know that I did in fact love them as much as possible. When I finally gained the opportunities to be with them again, I found that the phrase "I love you" became a common line in my vocabulary. Since then I have continued to use that phrase, and although sometimes with less or more meaning, I do not say it lightly, and those I say it to are those I would risk my life for.
I feel like I have more to say, however I cannot think of just what more to add here... friends, I love you.
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