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Aug. 3rd, 2016 07:17 amI think I know why Harry Potter and the Cursed Child resonated so deeply with me - and it's actually not at all surprising. One of my favorite things to explore has always been the interactions between how we shape the world by our choices and how the world shapes us back - the many lives we could have had slowly being whittled down to the one life we will have.
Picture a wall of doors. When we're little, we don't know how many doors we can open in our lives, the choices seem infinite and we have all the time in the world, so much in fact that we're impatient to become a Big Kid/Grownup (at least I was, and I know now that I was a fool. Adulting is freaking hard and so I keep an island of childhood within. I am sure I am not the only one. My Froglet never ceases to amaze me - she's always known that childhood was precious, she was never in a hurry to grow up). As we grow older, we understand that the number of doors we get to open in a lifetime turns out to be very finite and not that large. Some doors are nearly invisible, some glow fiercely as if they're beckoning to us, some are already ajar and sometimes we have to resist being pushed through, some we have to entirely hammer out for ourselves, but there is one constant: every time you open a door, whichever door you choose, a few doors are sealed forever. You cannot know who you would have been if you had made different choices, if you had picked a different life for yourself.
I don't know about you, but while I have few regrets (when I have a hard choice to make, I always consider carefully whether I might regret my decision. If the answer is "yes", it's a dealbreaker), I still often wonder what my life would be like if I'd lived it differently, if I'd opened different doors - if I had slammed down the telephone that morning, if I had accepted that job in Boston or in Wimbledon, or if we had moved to Angers instead of Paris. If I hadn't gotten married. If I hadn't had children. If I had never googled "Remus Lupin" in 2003. I am pretty happy with the life I have now, mind, but I wouldn't mind meeting that other Rainette, those many other Rainettes and see how they are faring.
Basically, I would have liked the opportunity to live a thousand lives, try them out for size and then pick the one I like the most. Or maybe just try them all out - I'd like to have a thousand years, I'd like to know who I would be/could be in a different world. Wouldn't you?
Anyways, this is why I love "It's a wonderful life" with all my heart, this is why one of the Buffy episodes I remember to this day (with my all-time favorite, "once more with feelings") is the episode in which Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale is granted: it's because they give us a glimpse of what would have happened if a different door had been opened at some point in the protagonists lives.
So yeah - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was exactly up my alley. :)
In other news, I am now at over four weeks with guests in my house (not the same ones, we had several batches of visitors) and much as I like all of them, I am now really ready for a few days of rest with my family or possibly just with myself, on my own terms. I am at the point where I get up extra early in the morning JUST so that I can have a little time on my own. Ooof! *falls over*
Picture a wall of doors. When we're little, we don't know how many doors we can open in our lives, the choices seem infinite and we have all the time in the world, so much in fact that we're impatient to become a Big Kid/Grownup (at least I was, and I know now that I was a fool. Adulting is freaking hard and so I keep an island of childhood within. I am sure I am not the only one. My Froglet never ceases to amaze me - she's always known that childhood was precious, she was never in a hurry to grow up). As we grow older, we understand that the number of doors we get to open in a lifetime turns out to be very finite and not that large. Some doors are nearly invisible, some glow fiercely as if they're beckoning to us, some are already ajar and sometimes we have to resist being pushed through, some we have to entirely hammer out for ourselves, but there is one constant: every time you open a door, whichever door you choose, a few doors are sealed forever. You cannot know who you would have been if you had made different choices, if you had picked a different life for yourself.
I don't know about you, but while I have few regrets (when I have a hard choice to make, I always consider carefully whether I might regret my decision. If the answer is "yes", it's a dealbreaker), I still often wonder what my life would be like if I'd lived it differently, if I'd opened different doors - if I had slammed down the telephone that morning, if I had accepted that job in Boston or in Wimbledon, or if we had moved to Angers instead of Paris. If I hadn't gotten married. If I hadn't had children. If I had never googled "Remus Lupin" in 2003. I am pretty happy with the life I have now, mind, but I wouldn't mind meeting that other Rainette, those many other Rainettes and see how they are faring.
Basically, I would have liked the opportunity to live a thousand lives, try them out for size and then pick the one I like the most. Or maybe just try them all out - I'd like to have a thousand years, I'd like to know who I would be/could be in a different world. Wouldn't you?
Anyways, this is why I love "It's a wonderful life" with all my heart, this is why one of the Buffy episodes I remember to this day (with my all-time favorite, "once more with feelings") is the episode in which Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale is granted: it's because they give us a glimpse of what would have happened if a different door had been opened at some point in the protagonists lives.
So yeah - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was exactly up my alley. :)
In other news, I am now at over four weeks with guests in my house (not the same ones, we had several batches of visitors) and much as I like all of them, I am now really ready for a few days of rest with my family or possibly just with myself, on my own terms. I am at the point where I get up extra early in the morning JUST so that I can have a little time on my own. Ooof! *falls over*
