OotP - feeling just a bit resentful...

[medeacallous]

No: HPFGUIDX 62222

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wendy St John" 
<hebrideanblack at e...> wrote:
> Shelagh wrote:
> 
> "Resentful just a tad towards JKR on behalf of Sirius.
> 
> I'm having a "what was the point" kinda time here about the books.
> 



I think the point is the same essential truth that all of us must 
face when we grieve.  To me the point is NOT that Sirius had a sucky 
life and then he died and that sucks (although it does).  It's NOT 
that Harry's left bereft and that sucks (although it does).  It's 
that there is a much greater tragedy than someone dying young, 
unfairly, and/or without ever having a taste of joy (if that is in 
fact true in Sirius's case), and that tragedy is to hang on to life 
as if death is the worst thing in the world, which is exactly what 
Voldemort is doing, if Dumbledore is to be believed.

I'm not speaking for anyone else, particularly not JKR, but this is 
what I believe (and I have experienced a *lot* of first-hand death 
in my life, including the premature death of a family member 
remarkably like Sirius): When someone dies and their death seems to 
have cut short a life that was unfulfilled, or that never had a 
chance to live up to its promise, I remember the following things:

1.  It's not for me to judge the value or worth of another person's 
life.  For all we know, Sirius could have been perfectly satisfied 
and at peace with how his life had gone.  He might even have 
welcomed death.

2.  I think that as long as one has loved, even one person, even 
oneself, even only God (or one's higher power, whatever that is), 
for even one moment, that life is never unfulfilled or wasted, no 
matter when that person dies or in what circumstances.

3.  I believe that no matter how magnificent a life one has led, the 
afterlife is immeasurably better.  Furthermore, I think that any 
soul, when it detatches from its body and chooses to go on and not 
remain as a ghost, also is relieved of all the burdens and cares of 
their corporeal bodies, and is left with nothing but love and 
promise.

So I believe that Sirius is able to be the self he was destined to 
be far more thoroughly than he could ever have been in life.  I 
don't think Sirius is sorry to be dead, so I'm not sorry for him.  I 
don't think that death impedes the flow of love between two people, 
in fact I think it sometimes makes it easier.

And if Sirius's death can help Harry come to terms with the evil 
associated with hanging on unnaturally to life, then that's a good 
thing too.

Medea Callous

PS: I'm not meaning to add any particular religious cast to this 
post, I hope it wasn't too woo-woo or too fanatical for anyone, lol.