(The following is a meditation on a couple passages from J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Fellowship of the Rings<\/i>, a work or movie with which many readers may be familiar.)<\/p>\n
In his fight with the Ringwraiths on Weathertop, Frodo is wounded and begins to fade. The wound also seems the worse for Frodo having worn the ring of power during the fight. Bilbo had also complained of this fading to Gandalf: \u201cWhy, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially the fear is that Frodo is becoming thin and as formless as the Ringwraiths. Looking at Frodo who is healing in Rivendell, Gandalf notices \u201ca hint as it were of transparency.\u201d However, Gandalf says to himself, \u201cStill that must be expected. He is not half through yet, and to what he will come in the end not even Elrond can foretell. Not to evil, I think. He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although I have not battled Ringwraiths on Weathertop, I feel stretched. I carry some wounds from my nearness to evil.\u00a0 \u00a0Some Myrtle Point kids who came to Sunday school have grown up only to go to jail. Others have embraced the slow suicide of drugs and alcoholism. Many of those I teach at the college are deeply wounded\u2014some abandoned by fathers, some caring for mothers. Most of those who aren\u2019t wounded are wandering.<\/p>\n
And I am now old enough to watch older friends and family struggle with the frailty of our bodies. Wives are losing husbands they have loved for years. Husbands are trying to find a way to keep going after losing a wife who was like the rising of the sun. Sickness ravages some families year after year. It is all too sad. It stretches the heart too far.<\/p>\n
I am weary of mourning the wounds of the young and the losses of the old. Spiritual death seems to grab the young without opposition and physical death plays craps with the elderly. There are too many requests on \u201cthe prayer chain.\u201d Love and hope are stretched. The story of so many I love is a long litany of missed opportunities and \u201cif only\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some respond to all this by growing a thicker skin, a harder heart. We are tempted to overcome the darkness in the world by letting the darkness into our hearts, by pitting our hardness against the world\u2019s. As we age, we can choose angry bitterness or grim resignation.<\/p>\n
But it may be possible to choose the fate Gandalf hopes for Frodo. Perhaps the stretching of our hearts can make us transparent\u2014free of pretense, utterly honest and self-less in our service. The stretching of our hearts might allow us to love more deeply and give more generously. Perhaps we can become \u201ca glass filled with clear light.\u201d I hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(The following is a meditation on a couple passages from J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Fellowship of the Rings, a work or movie with which many readers may be familiar.) In his fight with the Ringwraiths on Weathertop, Frodo is wounded and begins … Continue reading