Tolkien's classic has been a good friend to me for the past 4 years. I read the Hobbit as a child but only ventured further into Middle Earth in the summer of 2001. The Lord of the Rings was my companion and comfort during my summer on the White Isle of Ibiza. It took me to another world when I needed to rest. It put my journey and challenges into perspective so by the time I finished it a few weeks before I was due to return home, I felt like I was losing an old friend...
This Christmas there has been a small hobbit shaped whole in the festivities with the absence of Peter Jackson's masterpiece. So much so that a hardcore few of us decided that it must be remedied and thus declared today, The Lord of the Rings day.
Ben, Carol, Eloise and I began our journey at Shangri La at 8.30am with a Shire fry up and the extended version of the Fellowship of the Ring. At mid-day we moved to my home and ate a Helms Deep lunch (Baked Potatoes and Beens, it's all we could make out in there provisions; well we didn't see beens but we thought we could take a liberty or two...) and poured over the extended Two Towers. By early evening we were abuzz with images, impressions and ideas as we continued our path to Eloise's in Bognor to partake in some Samwise Gamgee Chips and fired cod (we couldn't stomach sushi for Gollum) whilst we revelled in the final extended installment of The Return of the King.
It is the only way to enjoy the film. It felt much more like a cohesive whole rather than three connected episodes. I feel full of energy and inspired. Peter Jackson, as always, has my repect and gratitude. RTOK's extended treatment is beautiful. I ended up sitting with my journal next to me as the images and relationships washed over me. There were many things that impacted me in a way I can't quite articulate...
***The inoccence of Frodo at the beginning.
***The loyalty and perseverance of Sam.
***Gandalf's transformation from Grey to White. His new focus, potential and authority, it reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13:11...
"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me"
***The hope
***The beacons from Minas Tirith to Edoras. I'm not certain why but they really move me.
***The Ride of the Rohirrim, in the battle for Minas Tirith, they arrive with the dawn, as all seems to be lost and charge to their expected doom, but they do it with determination, courage, honour. There concern is not in personal survival but in somehow hoping that their lives might save others.
I've been thinking a lot about my Church community and how western culture is so focused of the individual. There is such power in being together, in thinking as a body, in acting for the interests of the greater good even if you may lose in the process, in praying together, in building real friendships that last a lifetime.
Like so many times before the words of Gandalf have lingered with me...
"All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us..."
What will we decide for 2005?
xc