I am a simple woman. With
a good heart. I am much like a Hobbit, with smaller
feet. Peaceful
with a ready smile and a good word. Stronger than you know,
stronger than I know too.
I love a good story, full of mystery, puzzles, vivid
images. Stories
that roll around getting my heart racing and have me leaning forward hanging on
every word.
I read the Hobbit when I was in high school. I
skipped through the violent parts because I could. I
read the Lord of the Rings trilogy at seventeen. I
didn’t skip the violence, because I had come to believe that if I picked up a
book it was my duty… to… read… every… word…
And I fell from innocence. I
dated guys who thought that Taxi Driver with its blood and gore was a good
movie to take a girl out to. We didn’t go out
again. But
with each movie I fell a little further. Losing
more of my softness, my humanity.
We (human beings) killed
each other in one war ( … excuse me) “Police Action” after another. Emotionally
damaging handsome young men, raping soft young women, maiming the elderly, and
teaching innocent children that this was the way of life. Lest
you think I only point fingers at my own country… think again. We
are all to blame.
Today
I went to a movie that I have been waiting ten months to see. I
remembered The Hobbit with such fondness. And the viral Youtube hit
'Unexpected Briefing' for Air New Zealand helped me remember the delightful fantasy of Tolkien's book. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc
Yes, I remembered that there were icky parts in the book, but
in my mind they were minimized by the strenuousness of the journey, and the
rich vivid language of Middle Earth.
What followed was a visually beautiful
movie. In case you hadn't guessed - The Hobbit. There
was so much wisdom contained within the dialogue. Words that I did not remember from my
youth, but that touched the wise woman in me today. The
actors were superb, the score struck chord after chord in my soul. I am a different woman than the one who
watched Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy - released in 2001-2003. But today the brutality is horrific.
Is this what we are
destined to become as we fall into a downward spiral of violence? Will
some of us become the goblins and orcs of Tolkien’s nightmares? Because
we have come to believe it is the way of the world? Do
we have much further to fall? Are we truly different
than orcs as we leave behind bodies rotting in the fires of Auschwitz, the Twin
Towers, alleys of America, villages in Africa, the jungles of wherever else the
violence is erupting this week? Truly? Are
those of us who perpetuate this that different than orcs?
There is magic in the
world, though perhaps it doesn’t come out of a wand. But we will not find it if we continue to be
lost in the stories of brutality, rape, pillage and destruction. The
sacredness of life is lost as we become numb to it all by what we are exposed
to, whether we use electronic devices, a two-handed broad sword, or an AK-47.
We must stop accepting
that this is the way of the world. One person at a time we
must begin looking for beauty. Kindness. Truth. Faith.
We must look for and find the magic
in the world around us. We must let
go of our very basic tendency to react out of fear, controlling it through
courage, and find the sacred magic within our own hearts.
 |
| Magic Dust |
It comes from the beauty
of a butterfly and from the laughter of children. There
is magic in the first cry of a baby or her first coo. There
is power in the strength of a smile and a kind word. Wild
magic is loosed upon the land when true loves come together. But
the best comes when we come together to build something for all of us.
I pray that someday we
will look at these old stories of violence and brutality and be baffled: how
could anyone ever do that to another being?
And that my dear friends
is magic of the highest order.
Gayle McCain, Author
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