Hobbits and Wizards

Sometimes the world we live in boggles my mind.  How can a society go from a place that was represented by Leave it to Beaver, Mayberry RFD, and My Three Sons, to a society of Friends, Sex in the City and the Simpsons?  How can we go from being a refuge for the teaming masses yearning to breathe free, to a crippled over bloated economy with a corrupted government?  Why do we continue to corrupt ourselves by abandoning values and principles that are the heart of our strength?

I was thinking this morning about The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I was thinking about the role of the Hobbits.  They were the people least susceptible to the pull of evil.  They were the simple folk, the salt of the earth.  Their hearts were not easily corrupted by power, greed, or fear, as were the other nations.  I was thinking about the allegory, and what the different nations represent. 

Elves, are the educated elite.  They have much power based on intelligence.  They heal, design, build, and even fight with skill.  They are greatly admired.  Their weakness is in their conceit and aloofness.  They are drawn to power and consider themselves above other men.  Their strength is in their intellect, but they are vain and do not value the simple or the common. 

Then there are the dwarves.  They are men of industry, capitalists, those who pull from the earth its treasures.  They mine, and build, and create, but their weakness is greed.  They pull too much, they care too little about the earth that they pull from, and they release dark evils from the depths beneath or attract dragons to their hordes, because all they care about is the wealth they can pull from the earth. 

The men in the story are weak.  Their minds are full of fear and doubt.  They are pulled in all directions and are leaderless and vacillating.  They have potential, but they do not tap into it.

Only the hobbit is able to resist the great evils that pull at the other characters.  What is the source of the hobbit’s strength?  The hobbit is rooted to the earth.  He actually lives underground.  He is nourished by his homegrown food, his family, and his traditions.  He seems stodgy and naïve at the same time; yet he is not drawn to evil, because he loves simple things.  He longs for his home, his hearth, and his lands.  Always his quest is to go home or to defend the home, never is it to gain wealth, power, or prestige.  His strength is in his simplicity.

The wizards are like prophets.  They have great insight to foresee and lead, either toward good, or toward evil.  They have great knowledge and understanding and power.  I like the way Gandolf uses light as a weapon that sweeps away darkness and dark forces before it.  I especially like the scene where he plants his staff and commands the beast, “You shall not pass.”  I feel like we are all in a similar position today.  We are running away from evil, trying to stay ahead of it, but it is getting bigger and more powerful.  Finally, I think we will have to turn and face it, and draw that line and command it to stop.  All that we have to fight with is light and truth, with the love of our homes and families to give us purpose.  Power will not hold us up, wealth will not nourish us, fear and weakness will not sustain us.  We will have to make a stand on goodness, and push evil back into the abyss from whence it came.

Then shall the weak things of the earth break down the mighty and strong ones.