More often than not, you will never capture again the feelings that overwhelm you after seeing an epic movie for the first time. I remember this feeling as I left the theater after we watched the last Harry Potter. I remember being young and watching the very first movie…I remember feeling such intense envy because I wanted to be like J.K. Rowling. I wanted to write like her. I wanted to write and evoke the same feeling as that movie. But now, over a decade later, I realize that it is impossible. A book can never give you the feeling a movie gives you. And in the same manner, a movie can never give us what a book can. When we watch a movie it arouses all our senses. Our heart is overwhelmed with passion as the surge of powerful music stirs the blood within our veins…
Our eyes are filled with
tears as we see the pain and agony etched into the characters faces… we feel
their hurt, we feel their triumph as they lift the sword over their head and charge onward to victory… we are enchanted by what we see. Beautiful and
complex worlds that stretch beyond the wildest boundaries of our
imagination…such vividness can only be found in a movie. The effects are
overwhelming. When I leave the theater and the plain, mediocrity of my
fantasy-less existence settles down upon me like dust, I feel the strident sting
of sameness.
In books, a more lingering escape can be
found. In books we travel on a long journey. We have the rare opportunity to do
something we can never ever discover in the movies: we can see the minds of our
heroes. It is within books that we intimately become acquainted with a set of
characters. And if these characters chose to show us enough of their souls,
they become part of us.
In an intricate tapestry of silkily spun
words, our own fates become entangled within the pages of a book. We feel as the
hero does; with every page we turn as it brings us closer to the end, we pray
that they find what they are looking for. Because if they do find it, whatever
it might be—then is it not possible that we too might find it? The effects of
movies are powerful and overwhelming; but at the close they fade so quickly
when tossed against the unflinching rigidity of reality. Yet, when we close a
book we feel as if an old friend has died. And that story becomes a part of you
that you will never forget.
Sometimes I get frustrated, feelings as
if these stories illustrate the inexpressibility found in the deepest parts of
my soul. It makes me desperately desire to write my own…
These stories remind us what it is to be brave,
they remind us what it is to have faith—even when the hour is the darkest and
there is no hope to be found—these stories teach us to believe that no matter how
ugly and black and terrifying the enemy may seem, good will always triumph over
evil.
Books or movies, does it really matter? Regardless of the medium, a story is told. A story that can change our lives for a moment or for a lifetime.
<3
