"No, not really. All people are important, at least in that they're important enough to exist. But some people don't have stories, they just have a string of random events that don't really culminate in a coherent narrative. And some people that have narratives don't have important ones. Take one of the standard ones for instance: Someone grows up in a small town, marries their high school sweetheart, has kids, buys a convertible during a midlife crisis, gets divorced, meets someone else and gets second lease on life, gets remarried, and dies surrounded by their loved ones. It's still a story but it's not really that inspired."
He pointed at her.
"But you're part of a story about saving the world," he said, going slightly wide-eyed, his voice getting suitably dramatic. "It affects thousands, millions, even billions. The ramifications of having You-Know-Who take over the Wizarding World would be catastrophic since it'd hurt all wizards and leave him poised to harm people who don't even know wizards exist, completely unchecked, since they don't know the threat is even there. The Death Eaters could do things like transfigure major water supplies into poison or imperious people in charge of nuclear warheads to start nuclear armageddon."
He nodded at her. "Scale matters. Even if the part you individually have is small, if it's part of something greater your actions mean something more and that story means something more, too. Before this, I was part of an ensemble cast who did save the school from getting blown up once but mostly we just mattered to each other. Which isn't bad and is special in its own way but it's still not the same as being important."
He went on, "My small story wasn't important but it mattered because it affected who I am. And now that I'm in a story with this kind of scale that means I have a better chance of helping when it is something important. Small stories matter but they're not important, they just make people ready for things that are important via character growth."
no subject
He pointed at her.
"But you're part of a story about saving the world," he said, going slightly wide-eyed, his voice getting suitably dramatic. "It affects thousands, millions, even billions. The ramifications of having You-Know-Who take over the Wizarding World would be catastrophic since it'd hurt all wizards and leave him poised to harm people who don't even know wizards exist, completely unchecked, since they don't know the threat is even there. The Death Eaters could do things like transfigure major water supplies into poison or imperious people in charge of nuclear warheads to start nuclear armageddon."
He nodded at her. "Scale matters. Even if the part you individually have is small, if it's part of something greater your actions mean something more and that story means something more, too. Before this, I was part of an ensemble cast who did save the school from getting blown up once but mostly we just mattered to each other. Which isn't bad and is special in its own way but it's still not the same as being important."
He went on, "My small story wasn't important but it mattered because it affected who I am. And now that I'm in a story with this kind of scale that means I have a better chance of helping when it is something important. Small stories matter but they're not important, they just make people ready for things that are important via character growth."