With three talkative children at the table, the ship of dinner-time conversation is rarely steered by the adults in our house. Which is surprising given that the youngest is working with a somewhat limited vocabulary. To make up for this handicap, he frequently resorts to loudly repeating a single word with varying intonations. His vocabularly may be small, but he certainly knows what talkative is supposed to sound like.
Recently, I yanked my mind from some daydream or other and recognized that the children were discussing Harry Potter. This, too, is strange, given that not one has finished reading a single book of the series, nor have they seen the films. I recognize, with a bit of sadness, that Harry Potter has joined the company of imaginative figures, untethered from any particular medium, which populate a child’s imagination. Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, a Jedi Knight … they’re all hanging out together in my five-year-old’s dreams.
As if trying to get a firmer grasp on all that she doesn’t yet know, the firstborn says, “But Harry Potter isn’t …”, and I gasp. I am suddenly sure that she’s about to say “true.” She doesn’t. Finishing her sentence over my raised eyebrows, she says, “Harry Potter isn’t real, is it Daddy?” He says easily, “No honey, it isn’t real.” And I sigh, grateful I don’t have to intervene.
But if she had said true? That would have been a very different story.
It isn’t simply that I love Harry Potter. I do. Much as I loved Narnia when I was my daughter’s age. But it isn’t love (or delusion, for that matter) that would have caused me such pain to hear my child say, “That story isn’t true.”
Despite what you may now be thinking, I don’t believe there are broom-flying wizards right around the corner. That’s our reality. No broom-flying wizards. I might wish it otherwise, but I accept this.
But true? Not true? To me, at least, those words suggest something very different from what we usually mean when we say “true-life.” No, Harry Potter’s world is not “true-life.” But true? Yes!
Ours is a fallen, not-quite-what-it-was-meant-to-be world, and our reality isn’t always true. At times, it lies. It says this world tends towards chaos, you are on your own, watch out for number one, pursuing goodness is a waste of time.
Stories – at least the excellent ones – give us a glimpse of the world as it was always meant to be. Through the lens of a story, we can see the world as it will be again one day.
Reality? Too often it is a cracked lookingglass. Stories? No matter how fantastical, this is often where we spy the truth.
When Jesus came walking in bare feet to rescue us, he was asked many questions. More often than not, he answered them with stories.
He told us himself that his name was Truth, and he told us stories.
Love this, Christie. I wholeheartedly agree. This is one of my favorite topics that Madeleine L’Engle talks about. And, while I don’t know if you agree or not, I think this is the case with some of the stories in the Bible – creation and the flood for example. They are “true” whether or not they actually happened.
David, I think I could write a year of blog posts playing with L’Engle’s ideas. Even her descriptions of the family apple orchard are inspiring. And, yes, I completely agree that this applies to the Biblical stories. Christianity Today recently had some interesting articles/editorials about whether an historical first couple were necessary for our faith given that recent genetics research says that our world population could not possibly have descended from one man and one woman. I’m no scientist, nor am I a theologian, but I don’t see why my faith should be threatened by these new discoveries. The Biblical account of creation tells us the truth about our relationship with our maker even if we we were never meant to read Genesis as a science text. In my humble opinion, of course. 🙂
I’ve been really letting this concept roll around on my tongue as of late, I’ve started reading “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” by Marcus Borg, and he makes the point that although some of the things in the Bible might not have actually HAPPENED that doesn’t make them any less true. For example, I’ve been having trouble giving up the birth narratives because I really like what they say about God, that God works in these subversive and scandalous situations to bring about amazing blessings and my husband reminded me that the birth narratives don’t have to be what actually happened, in order for the message they convey about God to be true. I love that this is in the ether!
Christie – Madeleine L’Engle is my patron saint. When the questions in my head get too uncomfortable and I have no peace, I know it’s time to reread one of her books.