This Star Won't Go Out

At the end of our life, author Jack Kornfield says, the most important question is not how hard we worked or how much we accomplished. It’s “Did I Love Well?” And Esther loved well. It’s rare to see any human being love so well. And while Esther, and I, and so many of us yearn to make a difference—even to save the world—our world needs love more than it needs “saving.” For all of the problems on this planet, we are not here to save the world. But we are to here to fall in love with it. And if that love can only spread as Esther’s has. If we can do what she asked and find creative ways to express love and gratitude for the people we care about and the people we don’t know, it can elevate the human condition and allow Esther Grace to multiply one wish that she already received: to have made a difference.



Andrew Slack announcing HPA’s win of

$250,000 “with Esther,”

BOSTON & ORLANDO, 2010



Esther with Professor Dumbledore and his

handy assistant Andrew Slack,

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 2010





THE WEAPON WE HAVE IS LOVE


by Paul DeGeorge, Harry and the Potters

and co-founder of the Harry Potter Alliance


My brother and I have written a lot of songs about the Harry Potter book series. Some of them are silly and weird and shaded with irony. Some are romantic, some are trivial, and a few are just wholly sincere. “The Weapon” falls into the latter category. At its surface, the song is a self-assuring statement of purpose lending Harry comfort and encouragement in the developing war with Voldemort. But the song also broaches several of the major themes of the book series: selflessness, overcoming death, and the power of love as an enduring and potent weapon in the fight against evil. These themes resonate strongly with Harry Potter readers and our song has, I’ve been told, played a role in deepening that connection for some fans. The refrain of the song, “the weapon we have is love,” became the de facto motto for the real-world Dumbledore’s Army, the Harry Potter Alliance, and it is with that backdrop that I performed the song during the HPA press conference following the victory in the Chase Community Giving competition. Esther was in attendance that day, her face projected comically large over the stage through a satellite feed. It wasn’t the first or last time we would play the song for Esther, and I later learned that this was actually one of her favorite songs. It makes sense. Esther was always involved in a larger battle than her fight with cancer. She was playing her own part in shaping our world for the better. She wanted the power of love to be recognized and accounted for, and she worked selflessly to decrease worldsuck and to increase awesome.

I can see the success of her fight. It’s manifested by her family, by her amazing friends in Catitude, by the Harry Potter Alliance, by TSWGO, by Esther Day and by the work of John Green and all nerdfighters who’ve been inspired by her existence. Everyone who has met Esther understands that in spite of life’s difficulties, even in spite of death, ours is an incredible and beautiful world and we must take seriously our role in preserving and improving it. Those same ideas are at the heart of our song “The Weapon.” The most difficult performance my brother, Joe, ever gave was playing this song at Esther’s funeral.





THE WEAPON


written by Harry and the Potters (Paul and Joe DeGeorge)

We may have lost Sirius Black

But we’re not turning back

We will fight till we have won

And Voldemort is gone



I’m gonna do whatever it takes

I don’t care what that prophecy says

No I’m not afraid



Cause there’s one thing that I’ve got

One thing that you’ve got inside you too

One thing that we’ve got

And the one thing we’ve got is enough to save us all



We taught ourselves to fight

And now we know that neither can live while the other survives

And I know that that means me

So I’m glad we’ve got our Army

We’re gonna take down the Dark Lord’s crew

The Death Eaters will all be running from me and you

And you and you and you and you and you and you





And there’s one thing that I’ve got

One thing that you’ve got inside you too

One thing that we’ve got

And the one thing we’ve got is enough to save us all



The Weapon We Have Is Love





With Paul and Joe DeGeorge of Harry & the Potters,

SQUANTUM, MASSACHUSETTS, 2010





July, 2010





Happy Father’s Day by E. Earl


prelude: explanation

Ah, so we meet again, eh? Dad, I was going to do something really fancy—cut some shapes from construction paper, glue them all around . . . but yeah, all I got was some beautiful sticky fingers. Not the best present? So anyway, I decided to stick with #2 dad gift (#1 being, as we all know, a colorful tie): A letter. Hope you enjoy it, and I also hope it’s legible. lol.




chapter one: getting off track