Pippen and Merry
What do you want out of life? What do I want out of life? Sometimes I just want to be able to settle down in a comfortable home with green grass, raise happy kids, and read as many books as I want.
Another part of me really wants to be questing. That part wants to preserve and even improve on our world through some kind of heroic activity.
Maybe Tolkien expressed the two desires as well as anyone with his portrayal of the Shire on the one hand and the lives of the hobbits who left on the other hand. I want the life of the Shire. In one way the life of the Shire is the point. It also seems to miss part of the point: can I live a life to myself if there is a way to make the world at large a better place? And what of Pippen and Merry? They grew in a way that those who stayed at home never would.
Another part of me really wants to be questing. That part wants to preserve and even improve on our world through some kind of heroic activity.
Maybe Tolkien expressed the two desires as well as anyone with his portrayal of the Shire on the one hand and the lives of the hobbits who left on the other hand. I want the life of the Shire. In one way the life of the Shire is the point. It also seems to miss part of the point: can I live a life to myself if there is a way to make the world at large a better place? And what of Pippen and Merry? They grew in a way that those who stayed at home never would.
posted by Douglas H. at 7:56 PM
2 Comments:
Doug, Bart gave me your blog address and I started reading it last night. I came across this Pippen and Merry blog and started thinking about it and thinking of my life and journey. In some ways, "leaving the Shire" makes me think of my exit from the church and how tough the journey has been because of the alienation factor of friends and family. I've tried to go back to the Shire, but deep down, there are too many things that bother me. But it is still painful to me in many ways and sometimes I believe it would have been just as good a life to stay and then somehow believe it.
Anyway, I am trying to build my own workable shire and to some extent, I feel pretty successful. I have to feel like if there is a God, and I'd like to believe there is, that I've been very blessed and continue to be blessed in all of the ways that count.
I'm going to continue reading your blogs.
Dad, I think you are being blessed in a lot of ways. And I think you deserve it.
I love you.
Doug
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