That contained in this short booklet entitled "Good life for all" is the speech that J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter saga, gave to Harvard graduates in 2008. A condensate of positivity and good intentions, great to start the new year with the right foot.
It will seem strange to you that a few minutes talk has become a book, or rather an essay. But there are so many cues in these few pages that when you read it you will make a great gift, even if you have not achieve the degree yet.
The book's subtitle exposes the two macro topics that Rowling addresses in his speech: the benefits of failure and the power of imagination. You don't need to have read the adventures of Hogwarts' maghetto to understand his words, because they are phrases and concepts that come from the heart and from his life experience.
J. K Rowling admits that he doesn't even remember a word of the speech Mary Warnock gave during her graduation ceremony, so he already puts his hands forward and apologizes in advance to those present if they won't remember anything about what he's going to say at the age of twenty.
And with an irony that is disarming but that knows how to keep arousing attention, she confesses that having lived on her skin, she knows what it means to fail. Going against the wishes of her parents, who wanted her to graduate in some professional discipline that could assure her a job, she opted for Classic Letters and cultivated her passion for writing, sketching stories and stories in any cropping of time.
A few years after graduating, however, she found herself alone, with a small child, a jumping marriage and without work. This is an experience that wishes no one, let alone those young people who will enter the world after his speech.
Now, I will not be here to tell you that failure is a rush. It was a dark period of my life and I couldn't expect what the press later presented as a sort of fairy tale ending. I had no idea how long it was along the tunnel and for a long time the light in the end was more hope than reality. So why talk about the benefits of failure? For the simple fact that failure forced me to eliminate everything that was superfluous. I stopped deluding myself of being something that I wasn't and started to channel all my energy into completing the only work that was close to my heart.
Of course, not everyone will touch the bottom, but a dose of failure is always to be put in the budget, in life. It is known that from below you can only go up and Rowling is a living example. You will never really know yourself or the strength of your relationships until adversity puts you to the test.
And it is here that he then reconnects with the second theme: the one linked to the power of imagination. Imagination is not only the human capacity to figure what doesn't exist, and consequently the source of every invention and innovation. It is perhaps more transformative and revealing quality as it is the strength that allows us to feel empathy for human beings of which we have never shared experiences.
This enlightened by his work experience in Amnesty International's Africa Research Department. Here he came into contact, even if not directly, with tortured people, victims of violence and suppression, imprisoned because they had dared to express their ideas, because they had in some way rebelled against the regime.
The activities of associations such as Amnesty International are based on imagination, i. e. the ability to imagine ourselves as other people and act on their behalf. And the only weapon in their possession is human empathy. Those who refuse to use their imagination, burying their heads in the sand in front of these atrocious realities, do not live better than others. He is in any case tormented by nightmares and does not spend a serene existence. Nothing to do is also a statement of position.
J. K. Rowling remembers this well when he quotes Plutarch, according to which with our simple existence we influence the lives of other people.
The wish for "Good life for all" which gives the title to this short essay takes up the last words of the speech given by the English writer.
Tomorrow I hope that, even if you will not remember one of my words, Seneca's words will come back to you. "Like a story, so is life: no matter whether it's long, but good.
In addition to J. K. Rowling's words, the book is enriched with illustrations and graphics by Dr. K. Rowling.
