Why We Need Dragons
Feb. 11th, 2008 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunasarielWhenever I'm feeling nervous or unbalanced, I turn to Tolkien. The man and his works is/are my security blanket, my center of balance, my moral lighthouse (What Would Gandalf Do?), my friend(s). My lodestone, my one absolutely sure connection to who and what I truly am. It's kind of scary, that even carrying around a deeply battered copy of The Two Towers that's lived through the worst stabbing, scarring pencils, bleeding highliters, and space crunches that my backpack can throw at it, and it's still there. True, the cover of FOTR is now held on by tape, spit, and prayers. None of my books have all four corners intact. There was some serious highliter bleedage on TTT, and a cat might have peed on it at one point, but they're still there. They've got the battle scars to prove that they can go anywhere, do anything.
I guess that I'm writing this because I feel I need the grounding. Everything is going to be changing, I feel horrible about myself and the world, and I need to remember that there are still places where there be dragons. Plus, I learned an interesting little tidbit today: If Elves reside in Middle-Earth for too long, their spirits burn away their bodies, and they're left something like an un-cloaked wraith in appearance, only beautiful and far more insubstantial. I needed to remember that I am good at something, that there are places that not only accept me for who I am, but who will continue to do so as who I am changes.
This lies in the fact that there is simply so much to discover. At one point, C.S. Lewis told Tolkien something to the effect that, "the day you stop creating this world is the day it dies for you," and I feel the same. When I come to the realization that I know everything about this place, that I have mapped the places that once contained dragons, I will have come so far from my true self I may never find the way back.
I guess that I'm writing this because I feel I need the grounding. Everything is going to be changing, I feel horrible about myself and the world, and I need to remember that there are still places where there be dragons. Plus, I learned an interesting little tidbit today: If Elves reside in Middle-Earth for too long, their spirits burn away their bodies, and they're left something like an un-cloaked wraith in appearance, only beautiful and far more insubstantial. I needed to remember that I am good at something, that there are places that not only accept me for who I am, but who will continue to do so as who I am changes.
This lies in the fact that there is simply so much to discover. At one point, C.S. Lewis told Tolkien something to the effect that, "the day you stop creating this world is the day it dies for you," and I feel the same. When I come to the realization that I know everything about this place, that I have mapped the places that once contained dragons, I will have come so far from my true self I may never find the way back.
