Hey there, long time no post. Sorry that it’s been a while, I’ve been busy moving and working and taking classes. The Clinic I was in last year kicked my ass. But anyways I wanted to give this another shot. While there is no way I will finish books 5-7 by the end of May, I can at least give a little more insight into my world through HP.

So here we go again.

Chapter 8

So, Harry makes it to the Hearing in front of the Wizengamot. The room is set-up with one chair for Harry in the middle and about fifty people seated at the bench above him. Harry is charged under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Statute of Secrecy. Dumbledore arrives as a witness for Harry and everyone begins to whisper. Fudge starts the trial without giving Harry a chance to defend himself. Once Harry gets the chance to explain about the Dementors, Fudge labels his statement a convenient lie, but Dumbledore is able to produce a reliable witness: Mrs Figg, whom describes what she saw (Dementors and Dudley)

When Fudge points out the unlikelihood of Dementors in Little Whinging, Dumbledore suggests that someone within the Ministry ordered them there. Which makes Fudge mad and he refuses to accept any of this as evidence and while Dumbledore reminds him that magic can be used in these extraordinary circumstances. Fudge dismisses this, given Harry’s past issues, reminding them of his illegal use of magic three years ago at his Uncle’s house though it was Dobby who did it, not to mention when Harry blew up Aunt Marge.

Fudge then brings up Harry’s rule-breaking at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore reminds Fudge that the Ministry does not have the authority to punish students for what they do at school. Dumbledore also points out how ridiculous it is for the Wizengamot to be involved in this incident. The Wizengamot then clears Harry of all charges and Dumbledore peaces out quickly.

 

One of the hardest things to deal with in my life is my constant need for perfection. Hello, My name is Kristina and I am a perfectionist. Most people know this about me. Nine times out of ten I won’t do things unless I know i can do it perfectly, and then ever if I do try if something small goes wrong I am the most critical person about whatever it is that I do. A great example of this comes from work last week. We sent out some charts that I made to various properties that we own in various states. I worked hard on these and thought I did a fairly good job (and that was after I talked myself through my anxiety about turning this charts in for a few hours). Then we had a Regional Manager tell us that I cited the wrong laws…trigger my anxiety and perfectionism. I worked really hard to not be hard on myself and to not apologize profusely to one of my supervisors, but alas I still felt the need to apologize and explain what happened, even though my supervisor said it was not even close to being a big deal.

Perfectionism is a horrible disease in our society, fueled by unreachable standards, comparison, and the invention of social media. We have created a society where mistakes and flaws are frowned upon.  Our lives have to be perfectly manicured and we have to push ourselves to always be better and be the best at all we do. But is that sustainable int he long run? I’ll tell you this much… it’s not working for me.

And that brings me to the correlation between my life, law school, and this chapter of Harry Potter.

Fudge tries to bring up all of Harry’s mistakes, his flaws throughout the year, blemishes on his record in order to villianize Harry, disgracing him for telling the truth about Voldemort. In Fudge’s eyes harry’s mistakes are fuel for campaigning against Harry and discrediting him and that’s true for most of us. I used my flaws and mistakes, as well as other people’s, in order to justify why I/they suck. We all do it to an extent. We don’t like something about ourselves and we look for it in others to justify not liking it in ourselves. We don’t like another person so we share their mistakes and flaws with others in order to get other people to be on our side. (Gosh we aren’t nice to each other… are we?)

But what’s the point in that? Why do we put ourselves and others on trial in order to make ourselves greater? Why do we work so hard to create perfect lives, afraid of making mistakes that others will see? What if we just lived our lives, mistakes and all, and actually enjoyed the risks we take in life, the joys of seeing those we don’t necessary care for live their best lives, and the unexpected paths our mistakes may bring us to? here Harry’s mistakes weren’t always his own, and his flaws were what made him need his friends. His life was far from perfect, and I’ve said numerous times that his flaws drove me nuts and made him my least favorite character in the series, but what if I changed that perspective and embraced his flaws? What if I started to embrace my flaws too?

Perfectionism creates unhappiness… we live in an imperfect world… mistakes let us grow and move forward while sometimes pushing us back until we get it right. Don’t aim for perfectionism… aim for a life well lived. At least that’s what I’m going to try to do. will you do it with me?

Until Next Time,

Mischief Managed