I don't know what's wrong with me, I just haven't had anything to say..... I could make something up but really and truly my mind is absorbed in "The Lord of the Rings" which I've been reading. Perhaps I should just expound on a couple things I've been reading, which I've been hesitant to do since I'm sure you've all read it before, and I'm the only one in the world to whom this is new to.
Frodo's "still in love with the shire" reminds me of myself. I'm in love with the shire too. That is, I'm in love with a life dedicated to my own comfort. As much as I long for adventure, it's hard to drag myself away from the parameters I've set for my world. I like my space, I like determining what will hang on the wall for me to look at, what self centered activity I'll pursue each evening.
I think that if I was hanging out anywhere in middle earth, based on what I've read so far, I'd be with Tom Bombadil in the Old Forest.... hell, I'd be Tom Bombadil, except I wouldn't be called that. I'd be Little Bear. If I wasn't in the Old Forsest, I'd be in Lothlorien, where I could live high up in the trees, which is where I've always wanted to live anyways, although the elves there seem a little too serious for my liking.
I'm finding as I read the book that I understand clearer what the One Ring is all about, and I don't really think that the movie did a great job of explaining it. I suppose that most people have read the book, so we're expected to get it. The movie implies that all the rings were made by Sauron when in actuality, the three rings given to the Elf Lords were made by elvin-smiths and are not directly under the power the One Ring.
People had been talking (primarily, christians were talking) about all the christian analogies that Tolkien had supposedly woven into his story, though I've heard quite the opposite. And I must say, that while I can pull an analogy out of just about any isolated scenario, the Lord of the Rings as a whole doesn't seem to me to have much to do with God or Jesus, as much as it does with an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. I guess christians want to justify how they can watch all those demonic looking orcs and immerse themself in this magical alternate universe, if they can say "it's a picture of christianity" then they don't have to deal with the fact that their theology makes wizards out to be evil.
That's fine..... it's all just fantasy right? Gandalf's a good guy, even though he's magical, and this can be true because he's not real. It doesn't have to be an analogy. I think the same thing when I hear christians running around saying that their favorite band is christian, just undercover. Those are usually the people who only buy christian music, but now they've found something they like and feel too guilty to buy it unless they can justify it somehow, by saying the band is christian, even though it's on the secular market.
It's good music or it isn't. Non christians have good stuff to say and great music to make, and enough money to produce it properly. Go ahead and judge the quality of the music, but I don't believe any human has the right or the qualifications to decide which people are christians or which are not. Or should I say, which humans have obtained relationship with God. I don't even know what "christian" means anymore. I know what it's supposed to mean...... but then, things don't always work out the way they're supposed to.
For example, black riders are roaming the free countries of the north in an attempt to kill a young hobbit and take from him the ring that will enable the single most evil force in Middle Earth to cover the land with darkness and evil, while his filth bred orcs pillage and destroy all that is green and good.
And what will the christians think when they find it was a scared little hobbit, and not themselves, that brought that ring to the cracks of doom?
I've just totally merged two completely different tangents. That was fun though, wasn't it?? See if you can make any sense of it. I'm gonna get back to my book.
Frodo's "still in love with the shire" reminds me of myself. I'm in love with the shire too. That is, I'm in love with a life dedicated to my own comfort. As much as I long for adventure, it's hard to drag myself away from the parameters I've set for my world. I like my space, I like determining what will hang on the wall for me to look at, what self centered activity I'll pursue each evening.
I think that if I was hanging out anywhere in middle earth, based on what I've read so far, I'd be with Tom Bombadil in the Old Forest.... hell, I'd be Tom Bombadil, except I wouldn't be called that. I'd be Little Bear. If I wasn't in the Old Forsest, I'd be in Lothlorien, where I could live high up in the trees, which is where I've always wanted to live anyways, although the elves there seem a little too serious for my liking.
I'm finding as I read the book that I understand clearer what the One Ring is all about, and I don't really think that the movie did a great job of explaining it. I suppose that most people have read the book, so we're expected to get it. The movie implies that all the rings were made by Sauron when in actuality, the three rings given to the Elf Lords were made by elvin-smiths and are not directly under the power the One Ring.
People had been talking (primarily, christians were talking) about all the christian analogies that Tolkien had supposedly woven into his story, though I've heard quite the opposite. And I must say, that while I can pull an analogy out of just about any isolated scenario, the Lord of the Rings as a whole doesn't seem to me to have much to do with God or Jesus, as much as it does with an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. I guess christians want to justify how they can watch all those demonic looking orcs and immerse themself in this magical alternate universe, if they can say "it's a picture of christianity" then they don't have to deal with the fact that their theology makes wizards out to be evil.
That's fine..... it's all just fantasy right? Gandalf's a good guy, even though he's magical, and this can be true because he's not real. It doesn't have to be an analogy. I think the same thing when I hear christians running around saying that their favorite band is christian, just undercover. Those are usually the people who only buy christian music, but now they've found something they like and feel too guilty to buy it unless they can justify it somehow, by saying the band is christian, even though it's on the secular market.
It's good music or it isn't. Non christians have good stuff to say and great music to make, and enough money to produce it properly. Go ahead and judge the quality of the music, but I don't believe any human has the right or the qualifications to decide which people are christians or which are not. Or should I say, which humans have obtained relationship with God. I don't even know what "christian" means anymore. I know what it's supposed to mean...... but then, things don't always work out the way they're supposed to.
For example, black riders are roaming the free countries of the north in an attempt to kill a young hobbit and take from him the ring that will enable the single most evil force in Middle Earth to cover the land with darkness and evil, while his filth bred orcs pillage and destroy all that is green and good.
And what will the christians think when they find it was a scared little hobbit, and not themselves, that brought that ring to the cracks of doom?
I've just totally merged two completely different tangents. That was fun though, wasn't it?? See if you can make any sense of it. I'm gonna get back to my book.
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