Tag: Bilbo

On Why Unhappiness is Not a bad thing!

Happiness is an allegory as happiness is always pointing to something else. One does not get to rest in happiness. On the other hand unhappiness makes for a better story because suffering and struggle makes for a good story. If the prince did not have to suffer crossing seven seas, climbing seven mountains, defeating seven monsters to get to the princess, it wouldn’t be meaningful story or romance. In fact, one could almost say, blessed are the unhappy for it makes their story more meaningful (Matt 5:4). That is why unhappiness in not (always) a bad things after all.

Haruki Murakami in his book Kafka On the Shore says, “…like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.” Reading this I was reminded about two things. One, the TV series Mad Men. Two, Tolkien’s book The Hobbit.

John Hamm, playing the central character Don Draper in the Mad Men TV series, is a hedonistic ad man who loves to get his way in the advertising industry. Once, a smug CEO tells John Hamm, “We are happy with our current agency. Why would we want to do business with you?”. Hamm replies, “You say you are happy with your current plan but what is happiness except that which you feel before you want more of it.” Happiness is always a moving target. The moment you think you have arrived, happiness is the next thing – always pointing to something else. An allegory is always pointing to something else. Happiness is an allegory.

In the Hobbit, Gandalf gets thirteen dwarfes and the hobbit Bilbo to go on an adventure brimming with hardships. Every time Bilbo faces hardships, whether it be fighting the trolls or getting drenched in the rain, Bilbo wishes he were back in his cozy home sitting by the fire with a cup of tea and a slice of cake (so British!). Bilbo’s team faces many hardship in their journey until they reach Rivendel, the Elf land, where they rest for 2 weeks. Tolkien says there was nothing really to report on the 2 week stay in the Elf paradise, as it was period of happiness and peace. The story starts again when they leave Rivendel to face the next stage of hardships in their journey towards the lonely mountain. It is being disturbed from our happy homeostasis that makes for a good story. 

Happiness is an allegory as happiness is always pointing to something else. One does not get to rest in happiness. On the other hand unhappiness makes for a better story because suffering and struggle makes for a good story. If the prince did not have to suffer crossing seven seas, climbing seven mountains, defeating seven monsters to get to the princess, it wouldn’t be meaningful story or romance. In fact, one could almost say, blessed are the unhappy for it makes their story more meaningful (Matt 5:4). That is why unhappiness in not (always) a bad things after all.

Ps: Want to read more about what makes stories meaningful? Here is one way A Way of Stories…

No longer a Tween!!!

Tolkien’s Hobbit world, in which I wish I was living in, as of today, having crossed over my 33rd year, I would no longer be considered a Tween. Between ages 20 and 33, the Hobbits were considered to be in their “irresponsible twenties” – the tweens. 

Tolkien’s Hobbit world, in which I wish I was living in, as of today, having crossed over my 33rd year, I would no longer be considered a Tween. Between ages 20 and 33, the Hobbits were considered to be in their “irresponsible twenties” – the tweens. 

Ironically, I have done more irresponsible things in my 32nd year than the prior ones, quit my job to go back to school, grown long hair to name a couple. However, the truth is, the seemingly irresponsible things which I did are really adventures setting up the next stage of my life.

After 10 years in the field of Software, I got God’s call to go take care of His sheep by being in a preaching/teaching ministry. So I quit my job last October. I stopped getting haricuts because I figured I can be more generous with the books I bought if I save spending money on hair-cutters by having long hair. Besides, the best time to let down your hair a bit is when you are a student anyways.

All this to say, that the seemingly irresponsible things I have done is but a part of being in a bigger adventure. In Tolkien’s book ‘The Hobbit’, when Bilbo left his safe Shire to go, with Gandalf and the Dwarves, on what his Shireites would have considered an irresponsible errand, he really was embarking on a adventure. Every time Bilbo went through a rough patch in his adventure, Tolkien says that Bilbo would wish he had been in his home in Shire sipping tea and eating cake by the warm fire place. Over the past year, there have been rough patches where I have wished that I had the security of a good job. But the journey goes on and God has been immensely faithful to me.

Two roads diverged in the woods, and I took one. God has brought me so far on this road has helped me do so many things I would never have imagined to have been able to do. I am immensely grateful for His grace and presence being with me. I pray that God will help me be faithful to Him through the rest of the journey.

All that is Gold Does Not Glitter!

All that is gold does not glitter; Not all those who wander are lost… These words speak powerfully to the Christian living in the human condition. In life, everybody wanders. We never stay in one place. The question really is, are we wandering towards a destiny or are we truly lost.

Been re-reading Lord of the Rings… I am struck the poem that Bilbo writes about Aragorn. The poem is prophetic about Aragorn becoming the King he is meant to be. What struck me is that the poem looks through into future with hope in spite of the dreariness of the present state.

When the poem is written, the common towns people look at Aragorn as a bumb, a wanderer. He is derisively associated with the ‘rangers’ who wander about. He is weather worn and isn’t good looking either.

Aragon goes about wandering from place to place searching for things that are invisible to the common eye. He knows deep within that he is a King’s son and someday he will claim his throne. But until then, he has to wait and wait patiently going about the business of saving his Father’s kingdom, unbeknownst to the common folk.

It is in this context that Bilbo writes about Aragorn….
 

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king

All that is gold does not glitter; Not all those who wander are lost… These words speak powerfully to the Christian living in the human condition. In life, everybody wanders. We never stay in one place. The question really is, are we wandering towards a destiny or are we truly lost.

When people look at us sometimes it may appear that we, as Christians, are wandering about spending time searching for God’s glories and glorifying Him in life… through church, missions etc. It may appear to others that we are confused people oblivious to the priorities of life. But they do not know that in all of our wandering, we aren’t lost.

Aragorn, my LOTR-nerd-friend Chuck Dotson says, wandered for about 80 years, which interestingly is close to the ‘wandering years’ of Moses before he encountered the Burning Bush! We should take courage from such ‘hopefulness’ and remember that in all of our wandering, we truly are going about the goal of ‘saving’ our Father’s Kingdom. We will never be lost!