“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
My son when he was quite young would tell us about waking up before he was born. He seemed to think he was in some kind of control room where he was given lots of options. “I chose you guys and I chose red hair and I chose my grandparents and all of these other things including being a boy and then I was born and I looked down and said ‘Hey, I’m a boy!
He seemed to intuitive grasp that we choose on some level the circumstances behind our lives to come including it seems to me when we are born. More specifically we’ve chosen to be alive during this period of upheavals both political, geographical, spiritual and almost every other way. Even if you don’t subscribe to it being a transition of ages It seems that when the dust settles our lives will look very different.
Still as old Gandalf tells Frodo, since this is the hand we’ve either dealt ourselves or that has been dealt us (If you subscribe to the idea of Karma than this period by its very nature gives us the ability to balance out quite a bit of stuff). Is it more difficult to be alive now than other periods? I guess that would depend upon your definition of difficult. I can’t see being in Europe doing the time of the Black Plague to be comfortable or born into an oppressed society (of which history has no shortage of). Chances are if you’re reading these words it means you have both access to technology and one would assume time that you can spend not either finding food or shelter or finding a way to gain financial access to the same so that takes care of most of Maslow’s hierarchy right there.
Still it seems to me that we are living up to the old curse of living during interesting times for sure. All we can do is navigate our personal waters in the way that works best for each of us.
Blessings, G
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and Some People Just Have Closets by G A Rosenberg
Scattered Eyes Mandala by G A Rosenberg
I have tried several times to read Tolkien but I just can’t get into his stuff.
It was easier when I was younger… Now it seems rather stiff tho the poetic parts are still wonderful and the story classic….Still in matters of taste there is no dispute, tho would probably have more of a reaction if you said the same about deLint or Heinlein 🙂