Frannie returns to blogland

I know I've been pretty quiet in the last eight weeks. All I can say is that it's been a long road. Grief is so energy-sapping. And the work left to do has been all-consuming. But I am starting to see some light and to feel more like myself again, both of which are very good things.

Warning: This part contains spoilers for Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (Book 6) - do not read if you don't want to know serious plot details:
In news that won't ber a surprise to those who know me, I've been reading Harry Potter this week. I began by re-reading The Halfblood Prince (Book 6). I was struck, at the end of the book, after Dumbledore is murdered, by how well J.K. Rowling wrote grief. I really resonated with how the staff and students at Hogwarts responded to the news of Dumbledore's death. Her descriptions of the pain, the confusion, and the denial, all rang so true to me.

There are a number of reasons why Harry Potter has become such a phenomenon and I'm not going to expound on them all. The reason that interests me, in this post, has to do with how well she captures the human condition. Her characterizations, her descriptions, and the ways that these characters respond ring true to me. Rowling gets it. And she writes it well.

I've got some backlogged things that I'll be posting in the next few days. I've got a few sermons that I've written in the time I've been away from my blog that I'd love to share. And I have a very long piece that I wrote for our Junior/Senior Camp for a talk that I gave there (that Jim was to have given) on friendship that I want to post, as well.

Thanks for checking back, despite the lack of new postings in such a long period of time.