By Bernie Bell

After hearing some prime examples of insanity on the news, I was thinking about the ‘culture of unpleasantness’ which appears to be developing in the world today.  I then thought about all the people who are so certain that humans are about to take an evolutionary leap of consciousness, and maybe, even evolve further.  Then I thought of the balance between these two things.  The ‘culture of unpleasantness’ – the people who simply don’t care about and aren’t interested in what we’re here for – seem to far out-weigh the loving, ‘awake’ people.  This observation can bring you down.

BUT, then, I thought about the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  A rag-tag alliance of Hobbits, Men, Dwarves, Elves and a good Wizard actually changed the future of Middle Earth, though pitted against a couple of very bad Wizards and thousands upon thousands of Orcs.  In fact, just one little Hobbit is the prime mover in the downfall of the ‘baddies’, not the Wizard or the Elves, just one little Hobbit, who liked nothing better than to eat, drink and be merry, but who, when called on to do so, just got on with it.  He persevered, kept on going, and made a BIG difference in the end.

So, I thought, Tolkien really knew what he was on about.  Maybe he even saw what was coming in the years ahead and maybe part of the message of his story was this: numbers don’t matter, the rag-tag alliance made a difference, had an effect, because they meant well, they had good intent.  They wanted to make their world a better place.  Ranged against them were creatures who could only think of destruction (they couldn’t help it, it was what was in them).

The point I’m making is, that the one little Hobbit, just by keeping on, keeping faith with what he knew he had to do, what he was there for, however uncomfortable that was at times, made the difference, played his part, diffused the darkness, returned the light.

So, if you’re ever feeling a bit over-whelmed by the nastiness and wondering how much difference you can make, remember The Lord of the Rings, remember the Hobbit who went there and back again, and  also remember that the Orcs can’t help it – they don’t know what they’re doing.