Friendship And Lord Of The Rings
It is cliché, but friends are truly the family we choose for ourselves
There is a lot of talk about family and how important family is, but what about people that have no family?
Or the many people on this earth who have been hurt by their families. Blood might be thicker than water but, water is also essential to our survival, and without it, we die.
The power of genuine friendship is not something to take for granted. We, as humans, are a little funny sometimes. We are a social species who have no clue how to create healthy relationships most of the time. Or spend our lives fighting off perceived enemies and then complain about how dark the world is.
Friendship to me is magical. It grows from a little seed into a big fruit that we might call family. It is cliché, but friends are truly the family we choose for ourselves.
It is so different from romantic relationships because it is not as, let us just call it, possessive. We can have all sorts of friends, different ones for different aspects of ourselves.
Some we share hobbies with, others are from our childhood, and the list can go on. But what is so wonderful to me in this modern age is the internet. It has made friendship even more magical and adds a genuine sense of interconnectedness to our lives.
Friendship to me is magical. It grows from a little seed into a big fruit that we might call family. It is cliché, but friends are truly the family we choose for ourselves.
Witnessing strangers being kind to each other and helping each other out makes my heart so happy. It reminds me of the family we all are, no matter our differences.
And dare I say it, it makes me a bit more hopeful for our oh-so-desolate future…
When I think of genuine friendship, Frodo and Sam come to mind. The whole fellowship also, of course.
How they all, despite their differences, went on a quest that was important for the collective. The good fight. They worked together and aided each other with their strengths. They protected each other and cried when one of them died.
There was something so touching about the way Frodo showed Gollum mercy. He could see himself in Gollum and he let that compassion take over his hatred and fear.
Then we have the wonderfully brave Merry and Pippin. How they, despite knowing nothing else but the safety of their home, took on this journey to support their friends.
The Lord Of The Rings is an absolute masterpiece and a beautiful take on friendship and the power of working together.
In the end, we are all friends and family.
In this brief moment we call life, we play the roles of enemies and opponents. But in the essence of being, there is only love for our fellow human beings.
It is easy to get pessimistic about our humanness. I know I do. But there are also glimpses of gold. We have the immense capability to be kind and caring. We can support each other and ourselves at the same time.
Hopefully, we can all try our best to let it shine through in our lives, to make them brighter and safer.
What is your favourite moment from Lord Of The Rings?