mj . . . .

The death of Michael Jackson makes me sad on many levels and yet I’m glad that he did what he did for whatever it was worth . . . as I always say, 'it's not easy to be anyone' . . . yet we are all reminded that life is the greatest gift.


namaste ~! molly magdalain

“in your death we feel your loneliness which is really sad because you made us all so happy” . . . . random person . . .

someone somewhere tonight . . . .

This is a song written by a songwriter I met while I lived in Nashville several years ago. I loved it there in nashville . . . . you would go out any night of the week and hear real music . . . . stripped down to its soul in the form of a song and a guitar or a piano. Of course, some of the songs were not good but it was the fact that people were trying that was so contagious – disturbing – and necessary.

The first time I met Walt Wilkins was at 3rd and Lindsley probably around 2003 . . . . I’m fond of this club for many important memories in my life. I heard him play this song in a songwriter round and it was like time completely stopped – we were all there in the crystal clear presence of a moment of truth. It’s hard to explain really, but every time I’ve heard him play it live I get chills.

I used to think this would be a really ‘successful’ song and maybe it will be someday but it doesn’t really matter. It’s just beautiful and universal and of course I guess it was also the way he sang it . . . . as if it were sacred. To be honest, the one form of music I honestly hate most is Christian music. Shit, I’m sorry, I guess that’s mean but I just can’t do it . . . . it’s kind of a joke among good friends. But if I did still go to church on Sunday (instead of every day of the week) this is what I would want to hear.

Funny, I just looked it up on itunes and it looks like pam tillis and Kenny Rodgers have since recorded it. Good for you Walt – that’s fucking great! I knew it years ago and I still like your version the best.

Someone somewhere tonight
Is taking their first steps
Letting go of the hands that held them
And trusting themselves
And somewhere somewhere tonight
Is hearing their last rites
And praying with all their might
That there's something else.

So, babe, lie down here beside me
Let's lie real still
And tell me you love me
And you always will.

Someone somewhere tonight
Is tasting their first kiss
Whispering softly this wish
For this night to go on
While someone somewhere tonight
Is holding on to a bottle
Pouring one more and hoping that God will
Get them through till the dawn.

So, babe, lie down here beside me
And let's lie real still
And tell me you love me
And you always will.

Someone somewhere tonight
Is stuck in a prison
Breathing but just barely living
Behind walls of their own
While someone somewhere tonight
Just found their own wings
found some beauty, some truth, found some meaning
in spite of it all.

So, babe, lie down here beside me
And let's lie real still
And tell me you love me
And you always will.

And you always will...

slowing down . . . .

(the following is an excerpt from Osho Zen Tarot - p. 77)

Meditation is a kind of medicine – its use is only for the time being. Once you have learned the quality, then you need not do any particular meditation, then the meditation has to spread all over your life.

Walking is zen, sitting is zen.

Then what will be the quality? Watchfully, alert, joyously, unmotivated, centered, loving, flowing, one walks. And the walking is sauntering. Loving, alert, watchful, one sits, unmotivated – not sitting for anything in particular, just enjoying how beautiful just sitting doing nothing is, how relaxing, how restful . . . .

After a long walk, you sit under a tree and the breeze comes and cools you. Each moment one has to be at ease with oneself – not trying to improve, not cultivating anything, not practicing anything.

Walking is zen, sitting is zen.
Talking or silent, moving, unmoving.
The essence is at ease.

The essence is at ease: that is the keyword. The essence is at ease: that is the key statement. Do whatsoever you are doing, but at the deepest core remain at ease, cool, calm, centered.

A new kind of Energy

Energy is a pretty loose term that can mean a lot of different things ranging from your sense of spirituality to those things you plug into the wall but the actual experience of these things is drastically different. The use of your appliances and the payment of your electric bill is far from spiritual . . . it’s pretty much something you have to do in a very specific way. There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about Con Edison. I mean, seriously, I’ve actually wondered whether the people they have working for them are real. They all have this weird digitalized/robotic tone in their voice – I can’t imagine how they could get so many different people to sound so completely dull and lifeless . . . as if all of the energy has been sucked out of them.

This is one of the biggest businesses in the world . . . . so why is it such a monopoly? I think there is a fundamental, underlying problem with big business which is that wherever there is power there is always the potential for the abuse of it. Sadly, I think the most effective ‘mis-use’ of power in this country comes from shitty systems that never get updated. Things like the school system . . . the energy systems, etc. It’s always been possible for car manufacturers to make more fuel efficient cars . . . . . but they never wanted to because all of the fuel was making someone else money (and they’re probably all part of the same conglomerate, etc.). See the movie ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’ if you really want to know what I’m talking about.

It’s like the difference between people who believe in intelligent design – innovation – efficiency – and perfection vs. the people who will take whatever they can get at any cost. It’s the conscious vs. the unconscious . . . . the future vs. the past and I think this is a dividing line that is becoming increasingly obvious and relevant in our society. It’s the difference between Wal-Mart and Target. I was in Kansas City on Easter and struck by this great idea for shoe design so I went out to try and buy some stuff to make prototypes. Not very much was open because it was Easter but I did notice that Target was closed and Wal-Mart was open. I would really have to be desperate to buy from Wal-Mart but I did because I really wanted the stuff. Walking through the aisles, it just had a weird vibe. It’s very plastic – tired – and organized but not fully there, if you know what I mean. The next day I went to Target and I bought a huge yellow purse for $30 . . . I love it.

We need to start taking a closer look at companies and products in order to really understand what we’re getting ourselves into. Buying things is like having a relationship . . . you let a certain energy into your life. Why did the FDA approve neutrasweet when they know it’s a neuro-toxin? Probably because it’s a billion dollar industry and those health problems create more billion dollar industries. It’s really kind of sick, when you think about the fact that many people see the world this way.

Instead of seeing these people as our ‘enemy’ and waging some ‘war’ against them, I think it’s easier to look at them and see how barbaric and childish it really is . . . . to think that you are here to conquer the world and hoard everything in sight. This sort of behavior implies an underlying lack of self-confidence and lack of trust in the meaning of life. While I do admit that ‘things’ have energy . . . .what kind of person would actually want to be defined by their ‘things’ whether they are sunglasses or cars or clothes or whatever. You are the essence of your soul – you are your values – your ideas and your inherent nature. We’re not all striving to be some cookie cutter rock star/movie star. We’re striving to be ourselves – for real – and that truly is good work. That’s the kind of work you should be doing so don’t let your sense of a ‘day job’ rule your life. As Sharon Gannon says, “Give up the love of power for the power of love.”

It’s pretty obvious to me that the people running the energy industry are not enlightened individuals. One of the major points made during a talk I attended the other night is the fact that our use of energy is not efficient. For example, the hardware is structured to be able to store power but this function has not been utilized. We could reduce overall power requirements by around 30% if we addressed the issue of finding a way to store power. Another point that was made is that a lot of heat is lost during the generation of power and that heat should be captured and re-used to make the systems more efficient. Pretty basic stuff you know . . . so why isn’t this happening?

Ryan Wartena, PhD, is Vice President of Research, Engineering and Development of Nano Sol Systems, Inc., and has recently been named to the Advisory Board of Watts Up America, www.wattsupamerica.com. One of his current projects is to train and employ California low-income residents in PV production and installation of solar energy systems. His talk focused mainly on the fact that people need to first become aware of how much energy they use and secondly figure out how to generate enough energy to cover their personal needs. This is an idea that could change the world.

One of the most exciting things Ryan discussed was the idea of people putting energy back into the grid. Apparently, the current infrastructure already supports this so it wouldn’t be hard to implement on a grand scale. If people can find ways to generate their own energy, they can reduce their electrical bills or possibly even make money off of extra energy – as well as share it with their community. All of the sudden, it feels like energy might not be such a distant and unapproachable topic. I’ve had all kinds of thoughts about harvesting the energy from health club machines . . . . creating buses where people pedal (a health club on wheels or just getting from point a to b) . . . . why not put solar panels on the rooftops of cars . . . . I mean, who knows, anything is possible.

I’ve been going to more of these events lately and I think it’s great to get together to talk about it but I also feel that we need to just start doing things. It doesn’t have to be official or officially funded by anyone or approved or whatever . . . . we just need to make shit happen. And we know we can do that . . . so let’s start a trend and get this going in cities all over the U.S. I think the only way we can control our destiny is to learn how to do things ourselves . . . better . . . faster . . . cheaper . . . now. Knowledge is power and we are capable people. I keep reading books about the Industrial Revolution because I know that it’s not over, we need to make more things happen, together.

You talk about thinking outside of the box . . . .let’s throw the fucking box against the wall. Let’s turn the box into a garden and take the necessary steps to sustain our culture. Some part of me always thinks that the only limitation is mental. For all of those people who are still chasing after world domination . . . . I suggest a yoga class – better yet a yoga retreat. Meditation, counseling, writing a book about your life or falling in love for real. You either decide to make things better in the world or you get out of the road because we are in the process of re-paving it.

gratitude

When we constantly choose to be grateful, we notice that every breath is a miracle and each smile becomes a gift. We begin to understand that difficulties are also invaluable lessons. The sun is always shining for us when we are grateful, even if it is hidden behind clouds on a rainy day. A simple sandwich becomes a feast, and a trinket is transformed into a treasure. Living in a state of gratitude allows us to spread our abundance because that is the energy that we emanate from our beings. Because the world reflects back to us what we embody, the additional blessings that inevitably flow our way give us even more to be grateful for. The universe wants to shower us with blessings. The more we appreciate life, the more life appreciates and bestows us with more goodness.

(excerpt from the Daily Om - )

hip hop = consciousness

Beyond the hype and the shows - the magazines and the ticket sales, in the world of music there truly is a place that is grounded and real and this is exactly what we were talking about in our panel last night where we spent four hours discussing the consciousness of hip hop. It was pretty cool to think about the development of musical styles in conjunction with social movements such as the correlation between gangster rap and the downfall to crack in the cities.

Everyone agreed that hip hop is the most universal form of music because it has affected every part of the globe. It is the most universal musical language and that’s a powerful thing. However, it’s probably too powerful because it inevitably (and perhaps inexplicably, ha ha) got watered down over the years with violence and bullshit, now to manifest in the crystal clear precision of pop artists who make records about things that don’t really matter . . . . because I guess that’s the point.

Hip hop is the language of the streets, it’s the beat of our hearts and it has the potential to put the ‘unity’ back in the ‘community’ if we are willing to let it survive under the radar. It’s a weird time to be living in where everything is mixing. Everyone was saying last night that we have to get back to our roots and that is true . .. but we also have to sow new seeds for the future and I think this means building people up and empowering them to utilize their unique gifts and potential.

One of the major points that was made last night is that hip hop is not just a form of music – it’s a style, a fashion, a way of being, a way of talking and a way of existing in the world. And it is certainly not about being like everyone else - it’s about being yourself. For the most part, unfortunately, that’s not really happening out there in the world too much right now. We’re looking at a homogenous group of dis-empowered individuals who focus mainly on exactly what they don’t have whether it’s internal or external.

Power-less-ness is not a condition, it’s a choice. Change starts with analyzing that choice because you are always the one that will have to make it. You need to decide whether the world happens to you – whether you are a victim of the world – or you decide that you create your own world and actively start doing it. Life is unknown but it is not ill-intentioned, this much I do believe. Life is a perspective and you have to grasp that if you want to set yourself free. Reach for the stars, search for yourself, be who you are.

defying gravity

The people you fall in love with . . . well, what can I say except that they can show up in any form or format. I am grateful for all relationships that are true and meaningful . . . . in the end, surely, you know who you are and yet it is not always easy to take the time to express what is true, what is here, what is now. . . . no-where and now-here.

I live in Brooklyn. I make jewelry and music and politics and pretty much anything else that comes to mind here in the land of opportunity. Great things have already happened. The key is to remember, to learn, to grow, innovate and create the future that we all desire to experience together.

“the moment I jumped off of it, was the moment I touched down.”

Alanis Morrisette

WOW . . . .

No matter who you voted for, I think we can all agree that this has been a historic election. One of the most exciting aspects is all of the new voters and the fact that people are getting informed about issues – crossing party lines – and making their right to vote count. I think Barack Obama is a person with integrity and intelligence – a person that I will be very proud to call President.

The streets of NYC are amazing right now! People are talking to each other and celebrating about the election openly. I went to lunch and had a conversation with ten strangers who were black, jewish, asian and christian and we were all excited about the results. They have literally run out of copies of the new york times and pretty much all newspapers – the only paper I can buy now is in another language.

I think the election of Barack Obama is a powerful sign of hope and change towards the betterment of our nation. I think it’s also important that we all keep working together to move in the right direction but this election was historic not only because of the candidates but mostly because of the citizens.

We are experiencing a rise in personal consciousness and this is a good and necessary thing. I hope we can continue to talk about political issues and educate ourselves collectively because in truth we vote every day with the money we spend – the speeches we make – and our ability to believe in ourselves.

One thing I always say about my generation is that we are not going to be ‘one career’ people. We need to multi-task because we are probably very smart and very bored with our lives, on a certain level. So this means, follow your dreams – get out there and work for a political campaign or write a novel - do the things that you truly believe in. There are some kinds of work that you do for yourself and whether or not you literally get paid is oftentimes beside the point. We are a different generation but we are strong in new and important ways.

Sometimes I get very frustrated that certain issues belong to one party and remain ‘out of bounds’ when thinking in a partisan nature. I’d love to see more republicans who care about the environment and the rights that people have to their own bodies or the right to be gay! I’d love to see parties move forward with their own internal changes – it’s time for the republicans to re-invent themselves (cough . . . stop being the bitch of the fundamentalist christians).

The one thing I know for sure is that we all want government that Works. I think Barack Obama shares that vision. I just heard rumors about him potentially incorporating the power of the grassroots civilian core into the government. We need programs that work – education that could be called excellent – and energy policies that make sense.

So, I watched the cafferty file on cnn recently and he asks the question which I answered with a comment on his blog . . . but the comment is marked ‘waiting for moderation’ when none of the others say that . . . did I cross some invisible line when I said ‘money-laundering’??? surely you’ve got a sense of humor boys. All I can say is, “CHEERS!!!!!!”

“What will you miss most about President Bush?”

“I will miss the great comedy which has been generated in the past few years at his expense. Times have been so bad that I think people either have to laugh or cry — I’d rather laugh. But more than that I”d rather have a country I can believe in and I feel like it might become a reality with Barack Obama as President. Granted, it’s not an easy job but Bush was never cut out to be President — he should have been an actor or a gambler or a money-launderer (which is what I truly think he is best at.)”

VOTE FOR OBAMA

NYC unites behind Barack Obama

Meercats

Meercats at the Kansas City Zoo (photograph by Ellyn Claire Butler)

Joe Six Pack anyone???

I caught a good portion of the Biden/Palin debate on youtube and it seems to me that the Republican party is trying to run defensive schemes which are designed to confuse the other team (aka the entire nation). Palin has created her own “fargo-like’ rhetoric which regularly includes references to “JOE SIX PACK” . . . . (by the way, who the fuck is he and how has he ((and how have you, Sarah!!!)) generated so much national importance ?????)

In addition to weird subliminal mating rituals such as ‘winking and smirking’ . . . . combined with a strong preference not to answer and/or acknowledge direct questions – issues – and/or clearly state any real facts, her offensive plan is deeply rooted in the idea of beating us over the head with the stories about “Wright and Ayers” in addition to expounding upon the irrelevant day to day activities of American ‘Families.’ Hell of a plan if you ask me. You lost me at ‘creationist’ to be honest.

Governor Palin seems to be incredibly capable of eluding important issues – another hallmark of all politicians that I detest. When responding to the financial crisis, she really gets her claws out and says those predatory lenders ‘better be punished’ – as if her words alone are harsh enough to do the job. This is only to be upstaged by her big kicker which is undoubtedly the ‘pals around with terrorists’ card. How’s that for fact checking!!!

You betcha better go fuck someone else.

All in all, I think the thing that pisses me off most about Sarah Palin is the fact that she’s ‘not really there’. She does not and possibly cannot respond to live questions because she is not prepared to handle them. Watching her speak, I sense this weird connection to a wax figurine or puppet. Shit, I realize that I’m being mean here but I think this is honestly why she doesn’t actively participate in conversations. They’ve put a certain amount of answers in her head and if you don’t hit that button – we need to move on to the next one (or the previous one). We’ve got a jukebox here people!

In stark contrast, Senator Joe Biden was stately and comprehensive. He made clear points and genuinely participated in the dialogue. He talked about a variety of issues and ‘did not repeat himself repetitively’’as his opponent was more prone to do. My favorite remark of the evening was when Senator Biden called the McCain-Palin health care plan 'the ultimate bridge to nowhere’. (Is Palin somehow insinuating that 'Joe' drinks a lot of six-packs or is that just a funny coincidence??? 'Can I call you Joe?')

There’s no way to get around the fact that Sarah Palin is a beginner – she has no experience whatsoever and she will be ‘flying by the seat of her pants’ for quite a while if she ends up in office. She will be randomly making decisions about our future without understanding the bigger picture. Or even worse, she will be so malleable and helpless that countless others will try to mold and control her for their benefit.

‘I am an energy expert and I have no idea what I’m talking about.’ Cover of newsweek . . . that’s a flash in the pan because the Republicans have royally fucked up. They have absolutely proven how absolutely ludicrously ignorant they really are (at the moment). Oh shit, I’m going to take some heat for this one . . . . I have some very close republican friends, probably even family members. But the truth is that the only ideal we can really stand on – as a nation – is the fact that we are able to discern fact from fiction and dignity from pride, which can often turn into reckless greed.

George Bush has pretty much set the white house on fire on his way out. Should he be rewarded for that? Should He be mother-fucking bailed out??? I don’t think so.

I hope no one reads my blogs so therefore no one will care about the fact that I’m saying this shit. However, it does feel good to say it because the truth is that I am done with it! This is the end of the American dis-ease. We have a virus people and we need to fucking get rid of it.

Let’s Help Karl Rove and his infectious posse get into another business. You guys don’t give a shit about government – you only care about power. Go start a tv show about how to manipulate the American people – that’s a great idea – then you’ll Really be Popular.

Equilibrium

Equilibrium

photograph by Molly Magdalain

You can sing . . . .

Fat tires and cigarettes, romeo’s and juliet’s
Another night of crazy bets that everyone survives
With no scars and no regrets, you wait it out like a season but
Letting go can look like that before you realize
You can sing, can believe, you can be anything you want
All the time, day or night, you can be anything you want

Tank full of gasoline, long gone although serene

Strapped in like a diamond ring with many miles to go
You used to be a summer rain, not too hard and not too vain
Not too long before you learned the game that now you’re stuck inside
You can sing, can believe, you can be anything you want
All the time, day or night, you can be anything you want

Over the line, over the line
Far, far too driven, we’re losing our minds
It’s a beautiful night, beautiful sunrise
Did we ever notice or were we too blind

From fat tires and cigarettes, romeo’s and juliet’s
Stinging losses, deep regrets that everybody hides
In coffee shops and magazines, choir lofts and college flings
Did everybody lose their dreams on the playground
You can sing, can believe, you can be anything you want
All the time, day or night, you can be anything you want

(you can sing by lori chaffer from the album 1beginning)

the ever-changing library

Harvard Commencement Speech by JK Rowling

Text as prepared follows.Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world’s best-educated Harry Potter convention.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.

They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I’ve used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.I wish you all very good lives. Thank you very much.

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