Being a Hobbit in 2024
The holidays don’t feel like the holidays without Tolkien. Everyone agree?
Whenever Christmas rolls around, I do at least one of the following (or all of the following) in November and December:
Read “The Hobbit”
Read “The Lord of the Rings”
Read something else that Tolkien wrote
Watch the Peter Jackson movies
Do you have a list like this?
I explained some of the reasons why I equate the holiday season with Tolkien in a Los Angeles Review of Books piece a few years back, “Making Room for Santa in Tolkien’s Legendarium.” You can read the piece here to see what I think.
The reason for this column isn’t to repeat what I wrote in that LARB essay — instead I wanted to share something else Tolkien-related as many of us prepare for that old end-of-the-year tradition: making resolutions for the new year.
2024 is going to be an important year in politics because we have a presidential election taking place along with all kinds of important elections at the state and local levels.
Reader, you might not be interested in politics, or you might be someone whose political view is extremely one-sided. Regardless, I’d ask you to consider trying a little harder in 2024 to think outside of yourself and to have a positive impact on the elections that are going to happen in less than a year.
In Middle-earth, one of the least combative, most peaceful creatures are the hobbits. Of this hairy-footed speaking race that is closely related to humans, Robert Foster in “A Guide to Middle-earth” says:
“…Hobbits, although comfort-loving, provincial, and distrustful of the outside world, were in times of danger courageous, skillful and relatively undaunted by great terrors.”
Foster’s description couldn’t be more apt for Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin because, as we see in the trilogy, they show great courage and skill in terrifying situations. They are thrust into a position that forces them to open their eyes to see the greater world, to look beyond their own selfish interests and desires. It would have been so easy to leave the Ring with Elrond and company and head back to the Shire, but they didn’t. And their decision was incredibly consequential for everyone.
Which is why I think me and my fellow Americans should borrow a page from the Hobbit playbook in 2024.
So…
If you’re someone who is on the left, progressive, Democratic, etc., I’d suggest that one of your new year’s resolutions should be to read and listen to the other side. Read the Wall Street Journal, New York Post; or watch Newsmax or FOX. Listen to what the other side is saying about the issues that are important to you; listen to the issues that matter to them.
If you’re someone on the right, conservative, Republican, Maga Trump follower, etc, do the same thing. Read the New York Times, Washington Post; or watch MSNBC or CNN.
I’m not saying that this is going to change your mind or any of your positions or how you vote … but at least it might open your perspective to what the other side thinks.
That’s not a lot to ask, is it?
So, in 2024, keep an open mind, consider viewpoints that oppose yours, do your homework … and … be a hobbit.
Let’s have a great new year.
