Trash!

"When the Ephesians were converted, they changed their habits and practices. Under the conviction of the Spirit of God, they acted with promptness, and laid bare all the mysteries of their witchcraft. They came and confessed, and showed their deeds, and their souls were filled with holy indignation because they had given such devotion to magic, and had so highly prized the books in which the rules of Satan's devising had laid down the methods whereby they might practice witchcraft. They were determined to turn from the service of the evil one, and they brought their costly volumes and publicly burned them. Thus they made manifest their sincerity in turning to God....

The books the Ephesians committed to the flames on their conversion to the gospel, they formerly delighted in, and permitted them to rule their consciences and guide their minds. They might have sold them, but by doing the evil would be perpetuated. They afterward abhorred the satanic mysteries, the magical arts, and regarded with aversion the knowledge they had obtained from them. I would ask the young who have been connected with the truth, Have you burned your magical books?" MTYP 275

When I returned home after Fall Quarter, I put CDs, DVDs, and books in a Bath and Body Works paper bag to throw them away. Later on during that break, my mom and I got into an argument because she said that I should just give them away instead of throwing them out. I told her that I didn't want anyone else to have them because they weren't "good" (I think that's the term I used?). She replied with saying that how would anyone else know that they weren't good if they didn't read them? But I felt that they shouldn't even have the chance to read them (the issue was mostly about the books inside).

So I've had this bag sitting in my room since then until today when I finally threw them out. There was a bunch of different stuff in there ranging from Dan Brown novels to Gilmore Girls to N'Sync. But the most controversial things that were in there were...

my Harry Potter hardcover books 1-6.

Yes, I was a big Harry Potter fan. Not of the movies though because they totally ruined how I thought everything would be. I became a Harry Potter fan years ago when my aunt brought me over books 1 and 2. It was when they were gaining popularity and selling millions of books and I had heard about them but I didn't bother buying them or anything until she gave them to me. After that, I was hooked. The next book I had bought was the 4th, and then the 3rd, and the 5th and 6th when they came out. The day I bought any book would be the day I would finish it. Most of the time. I would just be in my bed or somewhere in the house for hours until I finished the book. Yup, I wouldn't talk to anyone or do anything until I finished. I think that only happened for a couple of books. The other books only took me, at the most, maybe two days to finish?

I remember the only time I didn't read them was when Gomez was my religion teacher. I think for most of that year, I didn't even touch them. I almost gave them away but I didn't during that time. Then maybe a few months after the beginning of my Sophomore year, I started reading them again.

The reason it took me a long time to throw them away was because I didn't want my parents to try to save them or anything from the trash and I wanted to throw them away when the trash bin was on the street because I didn't want to dump them in there and then have my dad carry that thing up the stairs to the street. Those books are heavy! So today after I took a shower and before I ate breakfast, I took the bag upstairs and threw it in the trash. I was thinking about them burning them before like from the example of the Ephesians. I remember talking to Jenny about taking them to the beach one day and making a bon fire. But since fire hazard warnings are everywhere, throwing them away seemed like the next best thing.

And I thought it would be "symbolic" or whatever to throw them away this week because I think this Saturday, the 21st, is when the seventh and final book comes out. I had thought about reading the last one to see how the series ends and then throwing them out, but noooooo. Never. I thought about it for two seconds and then decided no, no, NO!

I hope they're on their way to wherever they take the trash right now and that they are disposed for good.