Real Magic: Failure, Imagination and Empathy.
by David Zinger
J. K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, gave a terrific graduation address at Harvard this month. Here are a few snippets:
Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.
We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
Click here to go the Harvard site to view the video or read the transcript. It is real magic.
I have watched this video recently, and you’re right, she did an excellent job. The part about failure I especially liked. Like you noted above from her speech, you learn a lot from your failures. I like her even more after viewing this.
Lance,
I was quite inspired by her talk. It was interesting that yesterday it was Bill Gates on retirement and today J. K. Rowling on graduation. I liked Harry Potter but I have a greater appreciation of the author behind the story.
David
I was there! I blogged about this at http://scopecrepe.blogspot.com . Great speech.
Rich
JK is the best!! She’s awesome and I don’t believe people say she’s not a good writer! SHE’S THE BEST EVER!!
She wrote the most popular story for kids of all time!! I just found a list and she is now the 2nd richest woman in the world for doing this!! Check it out at http://www.weshow.com/top10/en/