Yesterday I conducted an interview for a future Game Plan column. I’m not sure what I expected it to be, but what it turned out to be was a stirring conversation about humanity.
Today I opened an email from my brother that had this in the subject line — Kinda right up your alley. A few tears later, I share it here. It is J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard and it is titled, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure.” The speech goes far beyond Harry Potter. This is one of my favorite parts, likely because it mirrors the gist of the conversation I just had about humanity yesterday:
Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
Now that, J.K. Rowling, is magical. Thank you.
