Unity. And Good Literature. And Harry Potter.

I finished simplifying the house yesterday! It feels so nice and simple in here now.  I'll post pictures tomorrow (or maybe the next day) as well as some things I learned in the process.

Today, being Sunday, I wanted to write about some spiritual things that have been on my mind.  I hope they don't offend anyone - I'm just speaking from the heart and I hope everyone knows that I'm not trying to pass judgment on others, but I'm simply evaluating where I stand on different things and why.

Again, my opinions are subject to change at any time!

As I've been getting rid of stuff, I've thought a great deal about what I will let into my home.  I want it to be a place where the Spirit can be and where we can ponder on the things of eternity without being encumbered by unnecessary distractions.  I want a safe haven.  I want an "incubator" as Elder Hales put it in this last conference.

The bible dictionary states that only our homes can compare with the temple in sacredness.  I know that the things that take place in a temple are different than what takes place in the home, but the purposes is  the same!  The purpose of both is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man".  Both are places in which we can commune with God and work to bring about His purposes.  Unity with God, each other and His work should prevail.

And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them

Contention comes from disunity.  Contention comes when pride steps in and what we want becomes more important than anyone else.  I am working hard at teaching my children the source of contention and how to overcome it.  I am seeing that as we try to grow closer to God together - disagreements are seen less and less and we can come to mutual understanding more quickly.  We are all working towards the same goal - making our home a place where the Spirit can dwell.

I was surprised at how easily a possible conflict was avoided yesterday.

I read an interesting blog post about Hunger Games.  I've never read the books and I wasn't planning to read them.  I'm finding more and more that sensational modern literature tends to be a bit unrefined and lacking substance  and I don't really have a desire to read it (Although, I got the impression from the post that Hunger Games wasn't lacking in substance, but was clearly lacking in refinement).  Anyway, the comments after the blog post kept lumping these books with literature like Twilight and Harry Potter.  I could understand how Twilight makes the list of unwholesome literature (the sexual tension throughout the book and the less-than-stellar heroine), but I didn't see why Harry Potter was being ranked in the same category.  I knew that Harry Potter wasn't exactly quality literature.  The language wasn't up to par to the great classics out there and there was some violence and making out which I didn't really like my kids to read about, but, after all, that stuff is out there right?  So maybe the kids should get a glimpse of that perspective every once in a while since they are sheltered so much at home.  And the story was so good!  It was a great struggle between good and evil with good prevailing and evil being shown for what it was - miserable and without real power in the end.

So I did a little research about why people have angst with it, and why some people think they're crazy.  I saw that people who understood the occult had more problems with it than those, like me, who have never been tempted with it or who know much about it.  These people saw a potential danger in teaching that the occult can be used for good.  In other worlds, "magic" and "spells" and "witches" are Satan's counterfeit for God's priesthood power.  If children become interested in Satan's counterfeit, they may start experimenting with it and loosing the influence of the Holy Ghost.

Now, I must admit that I don't see any danger in my children becoming obsessed with the occult or experimenting with it's power.  In fact, I could see how we could use the "good" power in the Harry Potter books as a metaphor for God's power and the "bad" power as a metaphor for Satan's.  Aren't most stories metaphors anyway?

I had to admit that I was rather naive about it all, though, and that witchcraft and fortune telling and all of those things are real, and they are out there so I ought to consider the opinion of those who have more experience than I do.

People also bring up some of the books obvious anti-catholic references, etc.  They also brought up Harry's character.  In the first book, he felt awful about lying, then in subsequent books it gets easier for him and he gets really good about getting away with things through telling fibs and by using his influence.  I hadn't really picked up on that.  I didn't realize that my kids had.  Here's how I found out:

We were talking over dinner about the different books I got rid of.  Spice asked, "Did you get rid of Harry Potter?"  I said "no" (I knew that it was a book that they loved and despite all of my research on it, I didn't think that it was enough to warrant the contention that would arise from my getting rid of them), but then I told them about some of the reasons people don't like the books.  They listened with interest and when I told them about Harry's lying, Spice said, "Oh yeah, I noticed that and I thought, 'I don't think that happens in real life - where people get away with lying so much.'"

So we talked about how Harry's character actually got weaker in some respects as he chose to take the easy way out of some of his experiences and how he got away with a lot because he was good at Quiddich or because he was famous.  I hadn't picked up on these things either, but apparently they were there.

Anyway, I told them that I thought it was a good story and fun one to read, but I didn't know if it was one of those stories that was worth reading over and over again like a true classic would be and how I wanted to only keep those books in our home that were worth reading over and over again. 

To my surprise, they agreed and said that we could always check them out at the library if the littler kids wanted to read them when they were older, but there really wasn't any reason to have them in our home (we haven't been to the library in months, by the way, we have enough books that I want them to read that I don't want to introduce more just yet).

I had chosen not to fight that battle with the kids, but I didn't have to fight it at all.  They see the vision that I have for our home and they want it to.  We are becoming united in purpose and the contention did not have to arise.  What a beautiful principle.

Anyway, I kind of went off on a tangent there, and I didn't mean to imply that Harry Potter books are evil and that children will be corrupted through them.  I think they sparked good conversation, but my standards are rising as I become more aware of what real quality is.

A few more books for D.I.

Why does it even matter? Why do I care if the things in my home are not always "the best"? Is this not prudish? Will my kids grow up with a warped sense of real life? I'm reminded of this quote by Arthur Henry King:

Every single object in a room is of relevence to our education and to the education of our children...Children are affected from the beginning by what they see and hear within the walls of their home. Their environment creates their taste"

I remember reading that King read Dickens, Thackeray, Goldsmith and others between the ages of seven and nine. I think we underestimate our kids nowadays. I want my children to read the beautiful language in those hard books. I know they are capable. We recently read "Oliver Twist" and "The Prince and the Pauper" together and they understood what was going on. But why would they want to pick up this more difficult literature on their own if they have entertaining, easy, dumbed down literature available in our home? I don't know. So I am getting rid of the dumbed down stuff and seeing what happens. I'll keep you updated ;-)

Our bookshelves after clearing them out yesterday (not to say that everything in here would be classified as "the best", but I got rid of all I could for now!):

 

*My friend, "Busybee", wrote a blog post about this sort of thing as well today.  You can read it here.   I happen to know her outside of blog-land and I admire her and her children a great deal.  Her comment on Misfit's blog was one of the ones that made me want to look into Harry Potter a little more.