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.