What's in the locked room?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 89069

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "vmonte" <vmonte at y...> wrote:
> Sylvia wrote:
> I go along with TRUTH. It's a much more abstract and difficult
> concept to grasp than Love, or Self-sacrifice. The nature of truth
> has been debated for centuries, without anyone coming to a 
definitive
> conclusion. Pilate asked Jesus "What is truth" and as Swinburne
> pointed out, failed to wait for a reply. I'd quite like to think 
that
> JKR is endeavouring to supply the answer Pilate couldn't wait for.
> 
> vmonte responds:
> I think truth is very subjective. Just look at how history is
> recorded. Each side (example: in war) will record history through
> their subjective point of view.
> Whatever is behind the door is also something that Harry's mother 
and
> Harry have in abundance. We don't really know much about Lily except
> that she gave up her life to save her son. She has unconditional
> love,she's courageous, and she is also compassionate towards others
> (she sticks up for Snape in the pensieve scene).

Geoff:
I would be inclined to go for both Truth and Love being the "force 
that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death". 

A few years ago, I used to have long debates with a younger friend on 
the question of whether there were Basic Absolutes in life. He 
maintained that there were not; morals  and attitudes were flexible 
and that he could decide whether something was right without 
reference to a benchmark. I disagreed with him and still hold that 
these Absolutes exist. To the end, I have capitalised Truth and Love 
in my opening sentence and will do when I am referring to them in 
this Absolute form but will use lower case letters when I am speaking 
in general terms.

It is true that truth is often the apparent prerogative of the winner 
in a dispute but there is still a basic Truth which applies to our 
existence and which is not the whim of the society around us and with 
which people often prefer not to get too involved. As an aside, 
Pilate's question "What is truth?" was not a question to which he 
wanted an answer. When discussions on belief and Truth get too close 
to home, a standard response is frequently to change the subject, 
which was Pilate's ploy. Jesus made two profound observations about 
the Truth; In John 8:31-32 "If you hold to my teaching you are really 
my disciples. Then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you 
free." And, in John 14:6, he said "I am the way and the truth and the 
life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Perhaps not 
everyone might want to subscribe to that but surely we must all share 
basic absolutes by which we accept that the world can operate.

Turning to Love. The problem with "love" is that, certainly in the 
English language, it is a word which has a wide range of meanings and 
is often used very loosely. It can range from "I love chocolate ice-
cream" (which is really expressing a liking) to "I love you, my 
darling" to the altruistic love which can show itself in self-
sacrifice – Lily protecting Harry as an example.

I have on two occasions at least referred to C.S.Lewis' "The Four 
Loves" in which he writes on the four Greek words for love – eros, 
philos, agape and the one which always slips my memory(!); each one 
looking at a different facet of love. The deepest love – at least in 
my opinion as a Christian – is agape which is, I suppose, best 
described as the altruistic, serving, love which is not seeking 
anything in return but seeks only the best interest of its recipient. 
Harry frequently wants the best for his friends; he wants to see them 
kept from Voldemort's clutches; he wants things to go right for them. 
Does he want anything in return? Maybe sometimes – friendship, 
support, honesty. But there are times when he acts for their best as 
he sees it. Sometimes rashly, sometimes unthinkingly but he has been 
known to put his life on the line for the benefit of others and so 
would recognise the idea of agape. Voldemort, paralleled in a way by 
Sauron, cannot even begin to see this. He uses people, discards them 
when their usefulness is over, destroys them if they get in his way 
and could not, even in his wildest dreams, envisage the idea of 
giving without expectation of return or that anyone would think 
differently to him. This is the failure which both JKR and JRRT point 
up in their various personifications of evil.

So I subscribe to the view that "the room" is involved with Love and 
Truth and, hence, Voldemort cannot visualise the effect of what is 
contained therein.