Sunday, January 01, 2012

New Year's Day, 2012

It's cold and windy here at the Secret Hidden Bunker as the new year is born. There's many things I could say on this first day of a new year...we are a troubled country, the fear spreads like a disease and our future is clouded. As always on New Year's Day, I go back to the wisdom of LOTR, the great mythological tale of our time...especially appropriate for this year, as our own quest, the American quest, rests on that edge of that edge of the knife...but hope remains, if friends stay true...
Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

5 comments:

"gunner" said...

a great message from a great story. thank you.

George said...

Michael,
Thanks for your post. The darkness that is in our land to day is wrought by our collective actions. Somehow our moral foundation decayed to allow a society and a government that are both out of control.

The solution to this problem is not going to be solved by government. The solution to this problem is a spiritual one. We must acknowledge our own corruption, ask forgiveness and repent. That will be the starting point for the light to shine again in our land.

DamDoc said...

We too at our house have been watching lotr over the christmas season, and I kinda like this dialogue, of a similar vein that also ties in what George said:

"Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

rpm64 said...

To paraphrase Aragorn---

The day may come when the courage of men shall fail and the 2nd amendment may fall,but that's not today, "today we fight."

John T. said...

Cursed be the ground for our sake. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for us. For out of the dust we we're taken and to the dust we shall return.
Now a movie where the character is a protected messenger and carrier of the precious word of God boxes my compass. Not words of wisdom of a couple of vertically challenged guys and an extra tall wizard. Of course the quote is from Genesis in the movie Book of Eli. You are very right, we need a spiritual ressurection in this country. God Bless America JT.