Bye Bye Dad (Revised)

In a few days my dad is moving to Connecticut to take care of my grandmother. He's going to stay there for a while and he will visit, but I just feel like it wont be the same. And this makes me think about Harry in the Harry Potter series. His parents are dead and he never got to experience being a kid with a caring family family (not the Dursley's). He doesn't know how it feels to be loved by parents so what could he be missing? The answer is nothing. He doesn't know what it's like to have a family. The theme I'm getting at is kind of like "is it better to have loved and lost or never loved at all". So I wonder how he would feel if he knew his parents, and then they died.

If you think about it, orphans who never knew their parents (and are not adopted) never experience having a real family (unless they're adopted of course). So like I said, what's to miss? But it's not about that. Since I don't have the experience I can't really speak for them realistically but I would think that they aren't hurt by the missing, they are hurt by the desire. The desire to have that perfect family and being loved. Since they don't have it and sometimes will never have it, the desire hurts the most. 

Obviously I'm going to deeply miss my dad when he goes away, but I always think, at least I have the memory. I know my dads coming back and stuff but you know what I mean. But I think sometimes the memories can hurt. Thinking about the good times will lead to you missing them even more. I know I'm going to remember watching all the old movies with him and yelling at the TV when we watch Top Chef. But on the other hand you at least have something to look back on and that's good enough for some people. I just know that I'm lucky, and I'm glad to have a dad.

Countless times throughout the book Harry is reminded of his deceased parents. Whether it's through pictures or seeing them in a special mirror in the earlier books, he can't seem to get away from it. Anyway, my colleague Peter Diller argues at my point. He believes that he doesn't desire a family, he misses his dead family. I disagree with that statement. He was too young to remember anything to do with his parents. If he had, he would have known he was a wizard before a half giant came knocking on their door to tell him.

But going back to theme, I think it is impossible to make the decision, especially because I haven't gone through it, and just in general there's always an opinion. But if I was to make a decision I probably would go with what Harry went through. He made a family. The Weasleys and his friends were his family and in real life it's possible to get adopted. I guess my only question now is how would it change your life if that person was alive, or you originally did have a family? What if Harry had a family? Would he be different? Would he have the tremendous courage he has now?