Ending. vs Ending...

It seems fitting to me that Harry Potter and seminary end at roughly the same time.

I saw the movie tonight.  Anticipation has been building for this since last November, when I saw Deathly Hallows Part I.   If you were to call me right now the speakers on my phone would sound those familiar and haunting notes played lightly on bells.  If you were to enter my apartment, you'd find the seven books are not on a shelf with all the others in my collection, but have a spot of honor, distinct from the rest.  If you were to check my internet history you'd find records of dozens are articles on the movies, the books, Pottermania, and the effect Rowling's characters have had on our culture.  If you were to look in my saved documents you'd find a paper written for a seminary class exploring how the world of Hogwarts and Diagon Alley interact with the world of Christianity and theology.

You might say I'm a Harry Potter fan.  

Perhaps its cliche to say that those books had a profound effect on how I understand the world, on the way I read literature, on the way I view movies, on the relationship between good and evil, and so on and so forth.  And maybe that's taking it a bit too far, but I'd be lying if I tried to deny that Rowling's books have influenced me.

To see the last movie and to know that in all likelihood nothing new will be added to the universe of Harry Potter is brings tears to my eyes.  It's something I mourn.

My life was invaded far more deeply by seminary than by Harry Potter.  Those three years were full of trials and laughter and frustration and tears and joy and pain and sorrow and hurt and love and trust and everything in between.  I made friends and lost friends.  The way I view the world was profoundly influenced.  I fell in and out of love.  I was guided back into a relationship with God.  If you read the short story about my faith journey that I wrote for the application process and compared it with the Credo I wrote at the end of seminary, you might wonder if it was the same person writing those words.

Even as I write this, I think of writing a fictional funeral service while sipping local beer, trying to ignore the impending death of our classmate.  I think of Growler nights as a way to recover from Ethics class.  I think of LOST parties, of postponed Christmas parties, of Tulip Time antics, of arguments about ice, of late night conversations, of Martini night, of library dance parties, of......

The list could go on and on.

And when I think about how seminary is no longer the reality of my life, tears fill my eyes.  Its something I mourn.

And yet.

I read an article today titled "This Is Not The End Of Harry Potter."  The author noted that J.K. Rowling's magical world cannot be contained to a movie franchise or to the pages of the books - its a story about the moral struggle between good and evil that now dwells in the souls of its readers.  It permeates our culture in unique and complicated ways.  It is a part of who we are.

Seminary cannot be contained to this one chunk of my life.  It dwells deep in my soul.  It helps me wade through the moral struggle between good and evil that permeates the very world we live in.  It permeates my language, my thoughts, my relationships, my speech, and my faith.  It is a part of who I am.

So an ending, yes.  But an ending marked not by the finality of a period, stating its last word on the matter.  Rather, it is an ending marked by an elipsis, stating that the story is to be continued after all.