Comments on: We Do Not Need Magic

By: Nadine T.

Nadine T. — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:52:49 +0000

I love that speech, and I’m discovering some facets of JK that I didn’t suspect. Great woman. Thank you Amy for spotting it.

By: shellim2008

shellim2008 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:45:52 +0000

I loved the overall theme that her speech covered of failure…it was perfect especially coming after all of the hoytie toytie speeches of the other Harvard-ites about success and doing well, and success etc. JK was perfect.

By: Susan Helene Gottfried

Susan Helene Gottfried — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:37:22 +0000

Yep, I totally love that quote, all right. As a writer, it’s something I, too, live by. If we imagine it, we can achieve it. Or we can do our best to try to achieve it, anyway.

By: Bo

Bo — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:16:40 +0000

Rowling’s speech to Harvard was perfect. I love that she talked about failure to these high achievers.

But as far as failure goes, I truly believe if you do your best you cannot fail, because your best is always good enough. It may not be someone else’s measure of best, but that isn’t ever your problem.

Trying to always be THE best – that’s a real set-up for frustration. What a person sees as failure is often a step on the path to success.

By: Karen Wallace

Karen Wallace — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:05:54 +0000

Hello Amy,
It’s been a while since I caught up on what’s happening in your world, so I was delighted to have time this evening to drop on by… and even more delighted to find you referring to JK Rowling’s commencement address – that I had just written about!

I haven’t watched the clip, but I did read the transcript and was very moved. I was hit initially by her talk of failure, and how that enabled her to do what she was meant to do (write).

But I see that your impression, the power to imagine better, is equally powerful and life-changing. What a speech!

Karen x

By: Jacqui Lofthouse

Jacqui Lofthouse — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:29:35 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing that Amy. It is an extremely powerful speech that will remain with me. It achieves what any great speech must in that it causes one to stop and reflect and potentially change.

By: Lune

Lune — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:19:24 +0000

Wow, it must have been amazing to be there.

I certainly believe in a ‘magic moment’ too, David – I try to notice as many magic moments as possible during my day – Eckhart Tolle and Jill Bolte Taylor have helped me so much in this respect and it is all about the little things, nothing huge. Things that you observe and record here, Amy.

I have read your blog for a while now and love it……so here is my first comment to you! I also wanted to let you know that I have tagged you to write about ‘Places I have called home’ for my meme on NaBloPoMo this month. Here are the ‘instructions’ on my blog:
http://quatrepattes.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/places-i-have-called-home/
hope you enjoy delving into some memories,
look forward to reading the results,
Lune x

By: David

David — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:50:38 +0000

I disagree slightly. I would say that if we use the power inside ourselves, we find out magic exists.

And sometimes it takes a magic moment to realise that we have that power.

By: Karen Swim

Karen Swim — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:43:18 +0000

Amy, thank you so much for finding and sharing. I will watch the video when my brain is not so muddled but I love what you summarised so far. We don’t need magic – very powerful message! Just what I needed to hear today. Thank you Amy!

Karen
xx

By: Joanna Young

Joanna Young — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:28:47 +0000

Amy, I don’t think my attention span will take me through 20 minutes so thank you for summarising the message! It’s a very powerful one.

We don’t need ‘magic’ to make a difference, to be heroic… we just need to recognize and realise (=make real) the powers we already have.

Joanna