Yesterday I saw first hand the power of an idea.
As I posted a few weeks ago, my wife and I are currently on vacation in Orlando, Florida, where we partook in the theme park candy that is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the new addition to Islands of Adventure. On top of re-creating the likes of Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and Hogwart’s Castle, I daresay that whoever conjured up this fantastic place also accidentally created time travel, because I immediately felt like a six year old. I was full of wonder, joy and had quite possibly the biggest and stupidest grin on my face for the entire day.
And while I have lots of things to rave about in terms of the experience ranging from “holy crap you must try Butterbeer and if you don’t like it I won’t be your friend” to “the Quidditch ride was so much fun I could pee”, there is really one impression that stands above all others. While waiting in a particularly long line, and watching throngs of people wandering with their own special wands from Ollivander’s, my wife made a profound comment in a totally casual way, as she sometimes tends to do.
She laughed to herself and asked, “Can you believe that all of this exists because one woman had an idea?”
I stood there in total silence. Where a moment before I had been wondering whether I should opt for frozen or regular Butterbeer and which would have the best flavor, I was suddenly fixed on what she had just said, because she was one hundred and twenty percent right. We were in a theme park, filled with thousands of fans from across the globe, waiting in 105 degree heat and sweating like dogs, and we paid to do all of this… because twenty years ago JoAnne Murray Rowling was captured by an idea while riding a train from Manchester to London. It captured her so much that she couldn’t help but act on it, and from that seed came an awesome tree that has taken on a life all its own.
Now I could sit here and write a few cheesy and contrived paragraphs about our own ideas and what happens when we pursue them, but instead I’ll leave that introspection up to you. Because seriously, that statement has been rattling around in my brain since yesterday afternoon, and I’m continually amazed by it the more I think about it. This is the power of an idea, and we should never underestimate it. In a lot of ways, Inception was about the same thing, and that movie registered with me on all kinds of levels as a creative person.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I want to go to Hogwart’s. And since I have nothing else to say on that matter that will be sufficient, I will leave you with this…
That’s all I got.
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