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Grim Truth 92/01/09
Sep. 1st, 2009 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_siriusGreetings, British Wizarding World.
You may have all wondered where I’ve been. It’s quite an adventure! I’d like to tell you sometime. But of course, going into details now might give my adversaries an unfair advantage in their frantic search. However, suffice to say that I took a little holiday of my own this summer, but now that the students are all on their way to school, some of them embarking for the first time, I also felt it was high time I got back to my important – perhaps my most important - work. Imagine my surprise when I found a brand-new journal on my doorstep, practically inviting me to test it out!
So, allow me to extend a special greeting to those new students who are arriving at Hogwarts for the first time. By now, no doubt, the Headmistress has already welcomed you to your education and warned you sternly against the dangers of the school – the Whomping Willow is still whacking anyone foolish enough to get too close, the Squid still lies in wait for anyone so unfortunate as to fall out of the boats on the crossing over the Lake and the Forbidden Forest is still full of – well, let’s say it’s still Forbidden and leave it at that. I expect that even without our old caretaker, Mr Filch, to grouse about muddying up his corridors, there is still a long list of contraband items, some of which you have probably already smuggled in with you. I shouldn’t be surprised if you’ve even been scolded against attending any of my little lessons along the way.
But one of the best things about going away from one’s parents for school is the opportunity to make your own choices and form your own opinions about the world. Your very own Sorting is an excellent example: How much of your Sorting comes from your inherent nature, and how much is a product of your own decisions?
Someone recently reminded me that no matter how dire the circumstances of one’s birth, the ability to choose our course is never completely robbed from us. Consider a child, oh, let’s say, merely one month old, barely a fortnight past his Naming Ceremony. Will he grow to obedience or rebellion? Shall he choose to treat others ’round him with respect or disdain? Though he be raised to extreme privilege, shall he spare a thought for anyone less fortunate? Perhaps not if he were to remain cocooned in a family who constantly reinforce the message of how extraordinary he is, how special or how above his fellows. But in a school where merit, skill and decency are the equalisers, he may be shaken from his comfortable assumptions and grow to appreciate others around him for their own fairness – fairness, I say, in withholding judgement or in forgiving him his early missteps.
Now, whether merit, skill and decency are still the equalisers at Hogwarts – if indeed, there still is any remainder of the spirit of leadership instilled in its halls by the tenure of its greatest Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore – well, that I cannot answer. I can only hope that your teachers remember that great wizard’s lessons, as well as their own subject matter. May they recall his wisdom when asked to sit in judgement over you young people as you feel your way through the dangerous territory of growing up – and more importantly, the perils that threaten anyone who begins to puncture the tissue of lies you are told, every day, about the values your leaders cling to and uphold. And for you professors - my professors, some of you – pray remember what it is like to be young, when ideals had meaning and when a little encouragement to stand up for liberty and equality might make the difference between a coward and a hero. With your influence, perhaps we can yet raise a nation of such heroes.
So this evening, all of you, consider carefully your choices as you digest your pudding. The assignment of a House does not control all the steps that follow. And within any House, you may find friends who will bring out the best in you and inspire you to bury the worst within yourself. A true friend is one who makes you the better person for having known him. And such friends, no matter how hard it is to do, will always tell you the Grim Truth.
Best of luck, friends.
You may have all wondered where I’ve been. It’s quite an adventure! I’d like to tell you sometime. But of course, going into details now might give my adversaries an unfair advantage in their frantic search. However, suffice to say that I took a little holiday of my own this summer, but now that the students are all on their way to school, some of them embarking for the first time, I also felt it was high time I got back to my important – perhaps my most important - work. Imagine my surprise when I found a brand-new journal on my doorstep, practically inviting me to test it out!
So, allow me to extend a special greeting to those new students who are arriving at Hogwarts for the first time. By now, no doubt, the Headmistress has already welcomed you to your education and warned you sternly against the dangers of the school – the Whomping Willow is still whacking anyone foolish enough to get too close, the Squid still lies in wait for anyone so unfortunate as to fall out of the boats on the crossing over the Lake and the Forbidden Forest is still full of – well, let’s say it’s still Forbidden and leave it at that. I expect that even without our old caretaker, Mr Filch, to grouse about muddying up his corridors, there is still a long list of contraband items, some of which you have probably already smuggled in with you. I shouldn’t be surprised if you’ve even been scolded against attending any of my little lessons along the way.
But one of the best things about going away from one’s parents for school is the opportunity to make your own choices and form your own opinions about the world. Your very own Sorting is an excellent example: How much of your Sorting comes from your inherent nature, and how much is a product of your own decisions?
Someone recently reminded me that no matter how dire the circumstances of one’s birth, the ability to choose our course is never completely robbed from us. Consider a child, oh, let’s say, merely one month old, barely a fortnight past his Naming Ceremony. Will he grow to obedience or rebellion? Shall he choose to treat others ’round him with respect or disdain? Though he be raised to extreme privilege, shall he spare a thought for anyone less fortunate? Perhaps not if he were to remain cocooned in a family who constantly reinforce the message of how extraordinary he is, how special or how above his fellows. But in a school where merit, skill and decency are the equalisers, he may be shaken from his comfortable assumptions and grow to appreciate others around him for their own fairness – fairness, I say, in withholding judgement or in forgiving him his early missteps.
Now, whether merit, skill and decency are still the equalisers at Hogwarts – if indeed, there still is any remainder of the spirit of leadership instilled in its halls by the tenure of its greatest Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore – well, that I cannot answer. I can only hope that your teachers remember that great wizard’s lessons, as well as their own subject matter. May they recall his wisdom when asked to sit in judgement over you young people as you feel your way through the dangerous territory of growing up – and more importantly, the perils that threaten anyone who begins to puncture the tissue of lies you are told, every day, about the values your leaders cling to and uphold. And for you professors - my professors, some of you – pray remember what it is like to be young, when ideals had meaning and when a little encouragement to stand up for liberty and equality might make the difference between a coward and a hero. With your influence, perhaps we can yet raise a nation of such heroes.
So this evening, all of you, consider carefully your choices as you digest your pudding. The assignment of a House does not control all the steps that follow. And within any House, you may find friends who will bring out the best in you and inspire you to bury the worst within yourself. A true friend is one who makes you the better person for having known him. And such friends, no matter how hard it is to do, will always tell you the Grim Truth.
Best of luck, friends.
