Lord of the Rings

ttocsland
February 1st, 2005
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music:Don’t stop believin
Alicia and I snuggled and watched the extended version of the Return o’ the King… the forces of good prevail against the powers of evil. Is this a message for our time? do we need four short people of the anti-apocalypse to go throughout our land and smack people upside the head and yell “he’s a fucker who’s bankrupting not only our economy but our status as good people’ and ‘soon they will come to take us away for being heinous thugs who don’t care’ and ‘this is the best you think we can do?’

Hope. It’s there around the edges, and we – or at least I – stand distracted. No – I didn’t create the upside down flag symbol, backed by historical rhetoric to demand a change now – be it peacefully acquired, or by anger and pain.

No, I chat, and go see movies, and hang with friends. While the armies of my country occupy and destroy and kill.

Kinda makes me ashamed. Certainly doesn’t feel right that my concerns at the moment are if I’m doing the right thing with the academy, versus – say, losing 80 lbs and re-joining the Air Force. Or running for office on the platform of ‘fuck no, we’re not going to take this crap’.

the storyline had friends who helped and sacrificed. Wise guidance at pivitol points along the way – and characters strong enough to go the hard way, face the challenge and pursue victory – in the name of the ‘good fight’.

The USSR and communism was a good fight, right? Vietnam wasn’t so good. Iraq held elections. Are we moving forward? Or will we let him distract us with Social Security boogeymen – no one is willing to call him on the robbery of our future? We can be – and are – so weak.

Wow.

During the movie I recalled Tim Faulk – a fellow Scout in the Raven patrol. We chatted Tolkein, and he suggested the Unbeliever books. I knew it wasn’t the most popular pursuit – reading way too many books, too many times – never quite finishing the Silmarilian (wonder if Matt did); being a bit of a geek, I incorporated Elvish script into my doodles throughout Jr. and Sr. High. David Day’s Tolkein Bestiary was to be my holy grail – a poster with the alphabet and stories and whatnot – Jonathan from the Island told me of it. Never have seen that poster.

An art teacher – 7th grade? – had a poster on her wall – she was also working on recreating a Journey album cover, so her tastes were suspect. Having my mom hem some slacks for some school thing- chorus show? 6th grade ‘graduation’? and the animated version of the Lord of the Rings was on – that started my interest in JRR. A news stand at Riverside Mall had a magazine with the LOTR characters on the cover, I recall.

So many years ago, so much love for the story and characters; vindication through Mr. Jackson’s skilled efforts. A story for the ages, where dark times begat darker times, but in the end the forces of good triumphed. A tale for our time? Perhaps… just don’t know which side of the story I’m on at the moment.

ciao,

:+S+: