In the good Puritan tradition, we'd love to be the elect. But what we're chosen for is important as well. Not only was Harry hand-picked, he was hand-picked to learn magic. This is no ordinary task, but something on which the world depends: a matter of good and evil, of plugging yourself into these great unknown forces and currents swirling around the globe.

Hogwarts is the place where great secrets are revealed, where alchemy and transfiguration are Core requirements. Hogwarts students can enter secret passages in everyday cities and are given unusual powers over the natural world and its ordinary inhabitants. Deep underneath the school, the Sorcerer's Stone--the secret to wealth and eternal life--is being held for safekeeping.

Has anyone checked the stacks lately?

Like most generalizations, this one is not foolproof. It's a chicken-and-egg problem: who's to say whether the university fits the mythology, or the mythology fits the university? And sure, there are levels on which this is just a story, surrounded by self-perpetuating hype.

But the same could be said of so many things: jobs, government, reputations.

Harvard is a passionate and opinionated community, and not all our passions and opinions were unleashed on H.P. (I, for example, may be the only one thrilled that Ralph Nader's web site is run on Linux). But we're choosing a new president for our country and our university, and these issues seem less relevant to our own lives than Quidditch matches across the pond.

But the larger issues are not to be missed. Harry Potter's story begins as a story of being chosen. We are beyond this, faced with the larger, more immediate problems of choosing. When Harry received his summons, he chose to go, and to accept the responsibility that came with it. Though much less exciting than the heavens splitting open, it's our individual choices which make future mythologies possible.