Meaningful Right Relationships
While reading the ever so long Facebook news feed, I came across one of my favorite blog sites. Hello giggles. It was a site I picked up from a friend and from following some celebrities and while there are some ridiculous stories on there–a lot of it is serious take about the nerdy things I find fun.
So the other day, this article came up. It is a short piece about how Harry Potter and JK Rowling managed to find a way to show how one can have a meaningful friendship with someone of the opposite sex. I guess several Harry Potter fans wanted Harry & Hermione to get together instead of Ron & Hermione. I will not spoil the article, but I think it is significant to see the claim the article title makes.
My generation originally wanted to categorize things. That men and women, if together, could only be together for one thing: sex. Our culture still expects this by making women confirm to clothing standards and such. And if you were not together “as a couple” or “doing it,” the it made no sense. In fact, Christian groups even supported this, by using it as the excuse to divide men and women at church. But as my generation matures (which has come a lot slower than previous generations i’m sad to say), we have come to realize through the stories we love can demonstrate a right relationship with the opposite sex can exist. And some other churches are catching on providing healthy places for everyone to grow together and so younger generations have a positive example.
So let’s look at Harry and Hermoine. Harry is “the boy who lived,” the special one yet the completely depressed and struggling one. He is orphaned with abusive family and psychology could have clinged to anyone (most likely Cho at first) but then realizes his connection with Ginnie and their relationship blossoms. However, Hermione is the intelligent woman, the brains and yet support of two boys as they grow into adults facing (excuse the language), the ultimate craziest and crapiest situation. She is the girl you take home. The one everyone tells how perfect she is but cannot find a boyfriend. She’s almost “one of the guys.” It leaves room for all kinds of drama between the three friends.
But notice how Rowling wrote it. She does not create drama or push Hermione into a corner or Ron or Harry out of the group. It takes all three to make it to the end, all three to stand and fight against evil and when it is all done, it is only then after they have worked together that they in a right manner choose their heart’s desire in a true friend based relationship. So for Ron and Hermoine it was each other and for Harry?-it was Ron’s sister Ginnie. Life moves on, grew out of the tragedy and all of them were kept together by the bound of their friendship.
Fast forward to today–the Disney channel show Girl meets World. It shows how a group of friends (Riley, Myla, Lucas and Farkle) does not require dating. Trust me–Riley and Lucas were almost there but they realized that maybe being friends first is more important and they would see where it goes. In fact there is a whole entire episode dedicated to showing that a relationship isn’t necessary for being together. Farkle goes outside the group and brought in a friend (Spackle) who is growing because of the group’s dynamic even though she wants to be in a relationship with Farkle.
So as our generations moved forward, I hope this growing trend towards meaningful friendships before romantic and sexual relationships continues to grow. It will not only teach our children how to understand their emotions before acting, but hopefully build better support systems to defeat and Devils and monsters of their day.
Musings of An AfterThought 