Life Lessons from The Fellowship of the Ring
I’ve been immersed in the LOTR world lately. As a general rule I tend to read the books first, before watching the movies, and the first few times I picked up The Fellowship of the Ring across the years, I wasn’t fascinated because those people just wouldn’t stop walking….
But because I want to improve my craft as a writer, I figured out I had to trudge through it if I were to learn anything about worldbuilding, and so I picked it up again recently, and this time I actually enjoyed it.
They still walked a lot…
But I still enjoyed it. Later I watched the movie and I realized there are many golden gems about life to be collected from both;
“One does not simply walk into Mordor.”
This of course is my favorite line because of all the memes that came after it; my favorite meme being the one that says, “One Does Not Simply Eat Mansaf With a Spoon” {Which I can’t find anymore so here’s my second best…}
But this quote reminds me that the things worth pursuing in life are not simple; whether it’s love or success or peace of mind…Everything requires work, everything requires moving out of your comfort zone, which segues nicely to the next quote…
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
When you’re children, parents ingrain in you the concept of always selecting the 3S’s of life (secure, safe and stable). That’s why kids go to school, study medicine and engineering, get government jobs when they can…but the thing is, there’s the pernicious danger of wrapping you in a false of security, so if the termination comes or the failure to secure another job comes, you don’t know what to do with yourself. This is not to encourage the taking of rash decisions and uncalculated risks, but to learn that life will always come with a certain degree of uncertainty and that’s okay.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.”
If you live in today’s social-media-frenzied world you’ll learn that the Jones are not the only ones you should keep up with. Societies that were already imbued in materialism have become worse as you learn to measure your self-worth by your net worth. But just because you don’t glitter doesn’t mean you’re not gold; your inner character defines you more than your outer characteristics. The second line encourages you to collect moments, not mementos; to value experiences over material objects.
When they entered the mines, and Gandalf had to make a choice on which way to take, but he said, “I am too weary to decide. We had better halt here for what is left of the night. ”
This was an interesting lesson in decision fatigue and how decisions made when you’re low on willpower are not always good one, so sometimes you should just avoid them. [This scene was actually changed in the movie. I think this is where he says, If in doubt follow your nose…]
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future”
Never underestimate yourself. You never know the impact of the work that you do. Even if you do one good deed and two people pay it forward, that would grow exponentially and you would have made a difference in the world. It’s known as the butterfly effect. So if you found this post valuable, forward it to a couple of your friends, you don’t know who might find inspiration in the quotes from such an epic book.
Post as appears on http://ahscribbles.com/fellowship/
Like this article? Press the heart below, and visit my blog at http://ahscribbles.com/ to subscribe to the newsletter and get a free copy of “20 Ways to Boost Your Mood Instantly”!
