Gandalf comes to school

I picked Morgan up from rugby practice the other day. I asked him how his day had been, as one does. He said that he'd had a good practice, that he'd done well in his Geography test, that McKellen had shown  up in his music class, that he'd played a good guitar solo.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Go back to McKellen."

"Yeah, Sir Ian McKellen," Morgan said. "You know, Gandalf?"

"Yes, I've heard of him," I assured my son. "I'm just wondering why he was in your class."

"He was there to talk to us." Duh.

It turns out Sir Ian McKellen spent a bunch of time at Morgan’s school the other day. Gandalf has been in Wellington on and off since filming of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy began; he’s here now for “The Hobbit.” McKellen has been a highly visible presence in Wellington and pops up at all sorts of places, from charity cricket matches to the opera.

So it’s not that unusual to hear of a McKellen spotting. He visited a number of classes at the school and took questions. McKellen, who is a well known gay-rights activist, was asked about President Obama’s personal endorsement of gay marriage and other “gay” issues. Morgan, who met McKellen twice, said his answers were thoughtful, insightful and wide-ranging.

I asked Morgan – who goes to an all-boys school – whether the students, who are in their teens and in that towel-snapping mode, were giggly or otherwise disrespectful. He assured me they were not and that, in fact, McKellen had been a magnetic guest. I will point out quickly, because I know how up in arms folks get about such things, that McKellen was responding to a question, not spouting a gay agenda trying to convert the students to a debauched gay lifestyle. He was there to talk about acting and the arts.

And he did telll them many astonishing things about the arts, things that Morgan will remember forever.

McKellen at the cricket match to raise funds for Christchurch

There are many things I love about New Zealand, as well as a few that drive me a little bonkers. But I wondered in how many other countries such a thing would have been possible. In fact, one of the things McKellen talked about was that when he was growing up in England, homosexuality was a crime. Morgan found that somewhat unbelievable.

I suppose what I really liked was how matter-of-fact Morgan and his classmates seemed to be about this. It was no biggie. When I asked him how he thought a similar situation would have gone down in other places, he shrugged and said, “pretty much the same, I guess.”

With his generation, perhaps.

The fact that Newsweek decided to put a halo over a picture of Obama on its cover and ask whether he was “the first Gay President” suggests we’ve got a long way to go.

Now understand I’m not trying to make a point about gay rights, though I suppose by definition I am. I just think it’s important that we can address issues in a civilized and rational manner without name-calling, shouting and trying to block out the other side.

To be able to have a calm discussion about such things with my son after something that occured at school was wonderful.

And, oh yes, it was Sir Ian McKellen. Yeah , that guy.