Why I like Harry...

The seventh and final Harry Potter went on sale today (or midnight to be precise). Of course, at 9:00AM, before workout and walk, I was in B & N with a dozen other people purchasing it. My younger daughter was #400 on line last night getting her copy. Blew off a Goo Goo Dolls concert with her sister and I to do so. I understood. It was Harry. And she's at the center of this Potter story.
I got divorced about 10 years ago. She was 6. I went from seeing my kids every day to wondering how to fit into their lives. Phone calls, yeah. Weekly visits. I went from living with and raising them to having to have something to do on those weekly visits. It was strange. Before I was part of things and now I was ....a visitor. Or at least that was the feeling I wanted to avoid.
So as the years passed we haltingly figured out how to do this divorced father/daughter thing. And Harry was at the center of it. When I found out that she was "hooked" on the Potter books (right around when the 2nd came out) I decided to start reading them. And when those conversational dead spots appeared, we talked of Harry. And laughed. And argued. And puzzled over meaning, and listed reasons why Harry should/shouldn't date Hermione, or why Ron should. Now, my daughter and I had a language. And that language branched out to other things. Middle school fears. Her ability to write and my encouraging and nurturing that talent. Her own growing trust in who she was becoming. I am very lucky. She 's an amazing young woman.
Thanks, Harry.