After visiting London for several days, I have a whole new appreciation for Harry Potter. In America, the whole world of the wizarding world is fantastical with a whole new language and ways of doing things. But it is not like that in England. For British readers, it is their world, a culture based off their culture. They know what boarding schools are like and they know the tests the O.W.L.S. are based off of. They can picture Kings Cross in their mind and what it’s like to walk the London streets. They know the kind of house Harry would live in. Coming here has felt a little like entering Harry’s world at times, seeing and experiencing things I’ve read in the books and seen in the movies. Attending the football game, I now understand far better the spirit of Quiditch and what it means to the wizarding community. Though I couldn’t understand the last three syllables, at one point the crowd chanted nearly the same thing they chant in the movies, “Go! Go! Gryffindor!” Other things that gave me a better understanding of the stories were seeing King’s Cross Station, ordering something off the trolley on the train, seeing and being inside a British house, and feeling the panic of finding the right platform when you know the train is coming soon.
This is one of the things I like best about travel. Stories I have only heard come alive before my eyes. Having just seen pictures, I am now inside of them, from a flat image to objects you can touch and feel, scents you can smell, chairs you can rest in. From hearing about King Henry VIII to walking in the rooms where he lived, from hearing about the Romans to seeing their walls, coins, and sculpture. By experiencing these things, my world widens; I have a wider perspective and things in my own life are brought into a better balance. My images of God are broken as well. We tend to place God in the culture where we live but when we see other cultures, we see new reflections of the one we worship, new lights to mix with our own. We enter into the story of the one we love on an ever deeper level, letting it become ever more real to us. By moving beyond whatever boxes we are in, whether through travel, making a new friend, or trying a new experience, it can be like stepping into a whole new world and understanding it a little better. It feels rather magical to me.