Emotional Range of a Teaspoon

I woke up this morning and thought of this conversation from Harry Potter, and how accurately it described my emotional state lately.

“Well, obviously, she’ feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she’s feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can’t work out who she likes best. Then she’ll be feeling guilty, thinking it’s an insult to Cedric’s memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she’ll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can’t work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that’s all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she’s afraid she’s going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she’s been flying so badly.”

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, “One person can’t feel all that at once, they’d explode.”

“Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn’t’ mean we all have,” said Hermione nastily.- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. by J.K Rowling pg 459

My emotions have been all over the place – and when people ask the standard, “How are you today?”, I have to pause and think, “Is this the time and place and person that I can open up and really share how I feel, or should I say something innocous like, “fine”, “ok”, ‘getting by” or, “still here”. I don’t want to lie, so I usually try to come up with a couple of words that could be accepted as flippant, or as a clue that I’m having a rough day, and then the the other person decide where to go from there in the conversation.
I think Michael J. Fox sums up what I am trying to say much better than I can.

So if you go up to someone and say, "How are you? Are you OK?" I mean, that tells me I'm supposed to not be OK. Just ask me if I'm OK, I'll tell you I'm OK...and take my word for it. Or I'll tell you I'm not OK...and then be prepared to reap what you've sown by asking me the question.
Read more: Michael J Fox Interview - Michael J Fox on Family and Tracy Pollan - Good Housekeeping

That’s the key – being prepared to reap what has been sown. I understand that most people aren’t prepared to deal with the rush of emotions that is bottled up inside me most of the time right now, and most of the time I don’t want to let them out either, but sometimes I do feel like I need to explode and that is when a listening ear, or at least a warm body is most appreciated.
Tears are nothing to be afraid of, they are very cathartic . The presence of another being brings love and peace into the equation, and that person can help you to come full circle to where you can face the day again.

Treacle Fudge - Not a Hit!

I promised to make Treacle Fudge in my Read the Book - Go Deeper Post.

Treacle was was not a hit at our house. Rebecca and I made it for Family Home Evening treat tonight. It was pretty funny, I had the recipe and invited her to come help me. We had it almost all the way made before she figured out that it was from Harry Potter. Finally, she says, 'it's from Harry Potter, I know who Rosmerta. I thought I recognized the word Treacle."

Here's the recipe in case it ever disappears from the mugglenet website
Rosmerta's Treacle Fudge

Treacle Fudge is a sweet treat from Mrs. Weasley or a tooth-breaker from Hagrid. Be sure yours doesn't get too hard! (Many thanks to Aurora for this recipe)

Ingredients:
½ cup light cream or evaporated milk
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup molasses Directions:Step 1: In a large bowl, mix cream, brown sugar and salt together.Step 2: In a saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove from heat and add molasses.Step 3: Add the chocolate mixtures and cream mixtures together. Pour mixture into a pan and let cool.Step 4: Cut into squares after cooled and serve. Enjoy!



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I learned the treacle is a byproduct of making sugar, similar to molasses, can be used as a remedy against poison, or as a table syrup. (www.treacle.net)


However, the fudge is very rich, our was very runny, more like a syrup. I like molasses, so I thought it was good, and Kevin really enjoyed it! No one else liked it, Brad made quite the face. I think that it would make a nice syrup over vanilla ice cream.



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Another side note - I mentioned that I also learned that in latin "accio" means, "I summon". Just a few minutes ago Rebecca came and asked if she could look up what some of the other curses or spells meant, because she doesn't know what they all are for. YES! This "inspire, not require", and "go deeper" concept actually works. I spent time today reading mugglenet.com and it was quite interesting, I'm sure she can learn quite a bit, maybe latin could be in our future?

Read the Book - Go Deeper

At my book group last week I shared a Harry Potter story and got some great advice along the way. First, the flashback, Brad is listening to the Harry Potter series on his pocket pc while he does yard work, and in the truck on his commute. Grandma Glasgow read book 7, then book 6, then book 7 again. Most of the family has watched the movies this summer (I've caught bits and pieces), Rebecca read the entire series this summer, with only little breaks. Emily is on book 4(she skipped 2 because it was lost). Uncle James has the entire series memorized ( well, maybe not quite but almost).

When Rebecca finished the series Brad and I agreed that she needed to read something else for awhile, some classics. She however, wanted to start the entire series again. After about 2 days she came crying to me, and explained how hard it was for her to see everyone else reading Harry Potter and for her to be "forbidden" to read it. We agree that she would read a "classic" between every Harry Potter book, but then , what was a classic? I helped her pick out some books that "might be" classics, but at least she was expanding her horizons.

I finally got around to finishing my reading of "A Thomas Jefferson Education". Reading the chapter on classics led me to a great dinner time conversation with my family. I asked them to help me decide if Harry Potter was a classic.

I got this far and realized I had already written about this topic is this blog post Classics - Chapter 5.

However, the point I wanted to make tonight was that when I told this story in my book group I was given this advice -
"Read the Books." I've read the books, I was the first one in my family to read the books, years ago. I enjoy them, but I've been telling myself that I don't have time to read them again, that I need to read other classics, to further my education. The next piece of advice struck me however, "Go Deeper".

"Go Deeper" what does that mean. Well, find something in the book that inspires you to learn more, and then learn more. Some suggestion that I recieved were find out what all the names of the characters mean, learn more about England, study dragons, etc. Ok, I get that - so I came home and started reading the books.

I asked the girls yesterday, How did Hermione get to Diagon Alley. She was muggle born, the paperwork the Harry got didn't tell him where to buy his school supplies, so how did Hermione find out. Someone suggested the she read in a book, but what book, she didn't know she was a witch.

I finished the second book today, and just looked up treacle fudge - google found "Results 1 - 10 of about 53,300 for treacle fudge. (0.27 seconds)" So, next week we make treacle fudge, I hope it turns out like Mrs Weasley's and not Hagrid's.

The other thing that I realized as I have been rereading the series is that I'm understanding the stories better, and picking up on new and different information. I'm still learning, and seeing the stories in a new light. I read these books as an adult, I can see how as a child she can really gain from rereading the book.

Again, I stand corrected.