#TolkienismSaturday
"Never Thought I'd Die Fighting Side By Side With An Elf."
"What About Side By Side With A Friend?”
It has been said that a real friend comes in when the world walks out.
It’s amazing the cast of The Lord of the Rings has stayed friends long after the production. They seem to have bonded over the long, and at times, arduous production.
Tolkien has much to say about friendship, and in fact, beyond the great battles, the tides and power of the book, when we look at the Fellowship is is their unlikely friendship that strikes us. Mortal enemies, Elf and Dwarf, becomes best of friends… for life even. The hobbits go as friends, stay friends, and return as friends. Even that wanderer and perpetual outsider, Gandalf, comes to value them, and as he puts it… “takes courage” from them.
In these times when the Dark Eye seems to divide us, isolate us, and seek to cover us in fear so that it may rule over us unquestioned… it’s interesting that they don’t want us to gather. They warn of this because of disease. Or admonish because of politics. Or restrict it by destroying the ability to move about by either transportation, or dire economics. They seem to turn us away from each other with every imaginary insult.
Could it be that they do not want us to gather as their darkness grows? That they do not want us to take comfort in just merely being together?
To laugh and just have fun.
Is their war, a war on Friendship? When I look around.. I wonder if that’s not so.
So we should gather. Laugh. Cry if we need to. But we should find friends in real time. And be friends if just to spit in the eye of Darkness and remind the ring bearer we all are in the darkest of moments that there is someone standing by you. And who will go with you against that darkness.
"Go Back, Sam. I'm Going To Mordor Alone."
"Of Course You Are. And I'm Coming With You."
Of course you are, Sam. Of course you are.
Check out my TolkienProject on YouTube. You can listen to my attempt to tell an homage Tolkien.
The, "I'm coming with you is a lot more powerful than folks give it credit for. It's Sam saying he's backing up his buddy's decision but will be there in a hot minute when things go pear shaped. On my side of the street, we call that a Shovel List.
How many people could you call at 2AM and ask them to bring over a shovel, and the only thing they would ask is, "You want me to pick up coffee on my way over?"
Prior to being deployed, I could honestly say I had maybe three good buddies who would show up if I called, after deployments, I have an entire call list of 30 who will show-up when called, regardless of time of day.
Funeral or Shovel list, those are the folks who are one that mean what they say when they say it.