Hope Conquers
Wispy cirrus clouds cling to the ceiling of the sky. As our minivan rolls east on the highway through Nebraska, spring has not yet come. The new grass is a harbinger of growth around the corner.
This week I’ve been thinking of the powerful fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien; his fans’ reading day on March 25 every year marks the date when the most unlikely of heroes face impossible odds to defeat an evil tyrant. In one of the ironies of the Lord of the Rings, one of the good guys (Denethor) loses hope that he can ever win. He feels helpless, hopeless, useless. And so he takes his life. Whereas far feebler characters hold on and see the demise of the Enemy who threatened their very existence. Hope outlasts fear by its very nature.
(New Line Cinema)
Another hero, Theoden, is an old king who moves from uselessness and inertia to vigor and determination to nobly lay down his life for others.
Sometimes I feel like Theoden in a Denethor world.
When the news cycles and social media and TV look bleak, we have a choice between sticking our heads in the sand like narcissistic ostriches OR shaking our heads in exasperated anger.
Theoden is not a Pollyanna. He has no illusions about how bad things are. But he grimly smiles at the danger and faces it with courage, like Boudicca, like Beowulf, like “beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart.” (C S Lewis recommending Tolkien’s book).
May you and I stay Theodens and Eowyns in the face of evil this year. We can outlast the pain and the evil, inside and outside. There are better times to come!
Looking Above,
Brian