Greetings loyal airman.  Well, unless you've been on vacation in the anartic recently, I'm sure all of you are aware of the amazing media blitz stirred up all around the world by the release last week of  J.K.Rowling's sevent and final Harry Potter book; HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS.  All the major retailers and book stores were having midnight release-parties that have become the norm for this series.  I had no such intention myself, being quite comfortable that night watching a Red Sox ball game on televsion.  Then the phone rang and it was our oldest granddaughter, Kristi, wanting to know if…1) I was going to the store at midnight to pick up a copy and …2) would I get one for her?   To which I replied, but of course, dear.  Look, there's just no way I'm ever going to say no to her, her sister, Chelsea or their cousins, Alex, Cora, Taryn and Logan.  I love my grand kids to the moon and back.

So the Red Sox won.  I watched the local late night news, then put on my sneakers and headed out the door at quarter to midnight.  Ten minutes later I was standing in a very long line of happy people in the garden section of our local Walmart.  Must have been at least a hundred people when I got there.  Then for sure another hundred soon fell in step behind me.  Having never done anything like this before, I soon found myself in a charming conversation with several Harry Potter fans either in front or right behind me.  One lady, about my age, was there to pick up two books as well, one for herself and the other for her thirty year old son.  While behind me a mother was there with her teenage son and daughter, having left a note on the kitchen table for her sleeping husband should he awaken to find his family missing.  Between the five of us, for the next thirty minutes, we talked about books and our love of reading.  It was so much fun.  By the time we had reached the cash registers and I was paying for my two big hardbound copies, I was sorry to have to say good-bye and tipped my hat to them, expressing my sincere pleasure at having met them all and shared this experience with them.

Driving home, I couldn't help but think that was something else I owed J.K.Rowling.  Yesterday I finished reading that book and can honestly say it is absolutley the perfect ending to her truly amazing saga.   Looking at the inside front pages of the very first book, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, I learned that it was released in England in 1997 and the American edition arrived here the following year.  Making the series ten years old.  Kristi was all of seven when that first book came out in the states, a precocious lover of books thanks to having both a mother and grandfather who are fanatical readers.  And truth be known, it was her childlike fascination with that first book that stirred my own curiosity and ultimately made me a fan.  Over those ten years, we've shared our thoughts and ideas on the series with each new book and we also became big time enthusiasts of the movie series based upon them. 

Why are the Harry Potter books so good?  Even classic?  Without getting into too many plot elements or giving away any facts of the last chapter, I can answer that quite easily.  Because Rowling, like all great writers before her, understands that all literature is about the struggles in life (be their real or fictional) between good and evil.  Harry Potter is an orphaned wizard whose parents were murderd by the evil Lord Voldemort.  Good versus evil.  What Harry learns quickly at the Hogwarts school of magic is that what saved him from Voldemort's killing curse was his dying mother's love.  The schools' headmaster, Dumbledore, tries to teach Harry just how powerful love truly is.  In the course of these seven books, Harry, in maturing to manhood, comes to understand the truth of that very simple fact.  There is nothing more magical or powerful in all of creation than …love!  It is what Jesus, Mohammed and all the great philosophers of history have taught us time and time again, but we are a stubborn lot we humans.  We get so caught up in our daily careers and quest for fame and fortune that this one lone truth often eludes us.  Oh, we say we understand it, but then proceed to live our lives so wrongly, it is clear we don't really get it.

LOVE!  It is all the magic your heart and soul will ever need.  LOVE…it is the reason for living and yes, when the time comes, for dying.  It will keep you young, it will make you see all the true beauty and miracles every glorious day has to offer.  And it will shield you against despair, hopelessness and all those other evils out there.  Harry Potter learns that truth and becomes the greatest wizard of them all.   It is my daily prayer that all you loyal airmen will be blessed with it as well.

That said, have a great week.  We'll see you in seven.  Ron, over and out.