Rowling’s Harvard Commencement Speech Sheds Light on One of the Tales From Beedle
The mp3 of JK Rowling’s Harvard Commencement speech came on to my iTunes as I was shuffling through the library. I have spoken before about how much this speech touched me and how it is full of wonderful lessons for people of all ages. When listening again just now, I came to the following portion:
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
I can’t help but compare this to the lesson taught in the Beedle the Bard Story, “The Hairy Heart.” The Moral of the story is that if you don’t allow yourself to be vulnerable you will never truly live. The wizard in the story specifically closed his heart away and he was never able to love or live properly and his heart ended up becoming something of a beast- killing his one chance at love. As I mentioned on the last podcast, I think that the moral of this story can be compared to the song, “The Rose” by Bette Midler. After hearing JK Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech again I can only be even *more* certain of this.
Here are the lyrics that sum up this story best in my opinion:
It’s the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It’s the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It’s the one who won’t be taken…
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live
Failure and vulnerability are hard lessons to deal with. However, I agree with JK Rowling (and Bette Midler) that unless you try, and even if you open yourself up to the possibility of failure, you will never truly live.
Tags: Beedle the Bard, Bette Midler, JK Rowling Harvard Commencement Speech, The Hairy Heart, The Rose
December 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Nice reflections Penny! I’ve been humming that Rose song since you brought it up on the podcast.
For some reason, I loved that song as a child. I think I was a pretty intense child!
So, he gets quoted all the time and that can be a bit wearying, but I’ve got to quote CS Lewis along these same thoughts. This is from his book _The Four Loves_.
“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
It seems Beedle and JK Rowling (and good ole Bette Midler!) share Lewis’ opinion.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Leanne- That is awesome! Totally goes with it all. It really is such an amazing thought though. Thank you!
December 11th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
[...] Progs makes a link between Rowling’s commencement speech and “The Warlock’s Hairy [...]
December 12th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
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December 15th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
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