Light. Without it, we wouldn’t be a part of this world. Thousand of flashing lights. Christmas has arrived and has passed but New Year’s Eve is just a couple of days away and there are still lights hanging everywhere, shining. Beyond their beauty and their material and commercial glow, however, the essence of this festive season has a much, much deeper meaning as long as one remembers to “light” up all the other lights.
Light refers to the electromagnetic radiation detected by the human eye, which is why we have vision. Light can also be described in terms of a stream of photons, which are massless packets of energy, each one travelling with wavelike properties at the speed of light. Countless ones, then, are emitted by the Christmas festive lights that adorn trees, boats, streets, balconies and illuminate all those during the holidays. But these activate just the vision and not so much our hearts.
Such photons are captured and released by the Deluminator of Albus Dumbledore. At first, with a quick glance, this little device looks like a fancy lighter but the possibilities of this special, symbolic magical object are much more. The Deluminator, created by Dumbledore himself, has the ability to suck the light of the user’s immediate environment and release them respectively when the user wishes with a little click. It is the first magical object we encounter in the story, both in book and movie. Then the Deluminator becomes the property of Ron Weasley and during the story, we see another use of it. That of a special compass, to put it in simple words. Ron used it to find his way back to Harry and Hermione shortly before the first ones almost drowns in the lake of the forest.
And what does the creator of the Deluminator wishes to say by “happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light”?. J.K. Rowling, through her amazing story, her characters and their magic world, once again gives life lessons. This light that is mentioned symbolizes hope while the Deluminator is every person who can draw hope from somewhere. A memory, another person, etc, and transmit it at the right time.
We live in dark times. But light is born out of the darkness. Due to the holidays, we decorate everything with lights but we always seem to need more. With the little Deluminator that every one of us hide inside, it’s time to give hope to others by illuminating their own hearts. Whether it’s a good conversation, a hug, some company, a warm meal or a warm piece of clothing, we can give hope and strength to those in need. Speaking of which, we all have a need for something!
Even in a short, circuited society and in dark times, however, there is always someone who remembers to turn on the light.
