Voldemort: Inspirational Speaker

A thought that intrigues me.  As we wind down our lives, sitting in a nursing home on the couch with the flowered pattern, what can we remember of the places we’ve been?  The moments shared with family and friends?

Will I be able to transport myself back to certain recollections?  See holographic, 4-D representations of the backyard of the home where I grew up. To hear those cars pass on the road just beyond a hedge as I play in the grass. 

Some memories are lost as we get older, but I’ve also found that older folks remember some moments vividly. Is this a secret superpower older people are imbued with?

Maybe young people can take advantage of this memory superpower early.

Life Affirmation with Voldemort

So, I wondered if there is a way to boost your link to a time or place. So you never forget. And I immediately thought of a guy who absolutely refused to be forgotten.

You know who wasn’t all bad?  That Voldemort guy.  I know his trial has been dragging on for a while.  And yes, he is probably guilty of most of those crimes (and maybe Harry Potter should just toughen up a little), but Voldemort had at least one good idea. Maybe he had something to teach us about the recollection of a life.

The Power of a Positive Horcrux

You see, in the wizarding world, if you want to prevent your enemies from totally killing you, you can divide yourself up.  How do you do that?  With something called a HORCRUX. 

You attach a bit of yourself, a memory, to certain objects, totems and you spread them out around the world.  You hide them.  That way someone can’t just walk up and off you.  To truly kill you, they have to go on a scavenger hunt, tracking down all these little pieces of you and destroying each one.

As muggles (someone who’s not an exciting wizard, just a boring normal human) we can’t really divide ourselves, but I like the idea of tying yourself, your memory, to a location.

So here’s what I did. I carried my old action figure into some woods behind my house. I found a crook in a tree and there he sits.  Where he may go unseen for a decade…maybe he’ll watch a century go by without being discovered.

For the rest of my life I’ll know that odd marker is there, in a place I inhabited for so many years.  A Horcrux to guard against the death of certain memories. When I’m old and gray, I’ll remember that image and suddenly be transported.  Remember that overcast day.   Remember the two people I wandered the forest with. Remember that home where so much of my life unfolded.

Hiding Pieces of our own Personal Voldemort

Of course, I’m not suggesting littering every acre of forest with your junk. My Dengar figure (He’s a bounty hunter from Star Wars…mixed metaphors I know) was rescued a short time later. I couldn’t bear to be separated from him.  

Yet, maybe just a picture of an object out of place, a snapshot in your brain, or on your device can guide you back one day.  Help you find that cabinet in your deep cerebellum where that one memento is stored.

Think of a place you thought long faded from memory, perhaps you can recall one item, just out of frame that you can pinpoint later, a gateway to the rest of the scene.  Like a matchbox car my Grandpa got free in a cereal box.  He kept it on a windowsill. 

That car remains a placeholder to guide me back to those moments around the kitchen table listening to his tall, slim portable radio with all the knobs…the foil-wrapped antennae.  In fact, I found a matchbox car just like his recently and bought it immediately.  Now I can hold it in my hand, read the words in metal on the chassis, and be transported.

Magic like that can be hard to destroy.

Voldemort’s Seven Steps To Success

So, until Voldemort shows up at your local Ramada Convention Center on an inspirational speaking tour in Suite B, give this idea a try.  Memories fade but you can slow the yellowing a bit.  I also apologize to any Harry Potter fans who might’ve been hurt by my misconstruing elements from the books and movies.