The Happy Hobbit

I've written previously about times when I saw the Lord of the Rings movies with my children, including seeing the second one at a teeny tiny theater in Oakley, Kansas, on our way to go skiing in Colorado. My boys especially loved those movies, and I loved watching my boys watch those movies. So when the trailers started appearing for The Hobbit film, Brad and I decided that we would go see it together (since his brother is now a Canadian, he had to settle for seeing it with his old mom). And that's exactly what we did on Christmas Eve ... we met for lunch and then went to the movie, just the two of us. We ate and we talked and we watched the movie, but you know what else we did? We made a memory ... a memory we will forever remember. You see, Brad and I are very similar in that regard ... we both appreciate the importance of memories and the stories that surround those memories. We are both storytellers at heart ... Brad tells stories through film, and I tell them through writing. We made a memory on Christmas Eve, Brad and I, a memory that we will forever remember.

I first read The Hobbit when I was in junior high, and I remember how taken I was with the story contained within the covers of the book. Pictures of the characters formed in my mind, and it didn't take much reading at all for my imagination to shift into overdrive. And as the film began to play on Monday, I was more than a bit delighted that those pictures I had created in my mind all those years ago quite closely resembled the characters who appeared on the big screen. Watching a flick in the theater with Brad is different now than it used to be because now he creates films himself. He watches a movie with a more critical eye, an eye that has been taught to notice the technical aspects of a film ... he sees things in movies that I don't see because he sees them through different, well-trained eyes. I'm sure my son didn't notice all the times I glanced at him during the movie on Monday ... all the times I looked at him and thought my heart would surely burst from the love I have for him.

There are a ton of lessons in all of the Lord of the Rings stories, but The Hobbit has always held some of the biggest for me. As I watched the story unfold on the huge screen in the theater, I was struck over and over again by lesson after lesson ... big, huge life lessons. Without a doubt, my favorite character is Gandalph, the wise old wizard who initiates the adventure upon which he enlists the participation of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. And though there were many Gandalph lessons for me, one in particular struck a chord deep within my heart on Monday ... a lesson about ... well ... I think I'll just end with the quote from Gandalph. It's a powerful thought, friends, a thought worthy of a great deal of thinking ... a thought well worth some serious, thoughtful thinking.

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love."