I've been re-reading The Lord of the Rings and I just began The Two Towers. As I read a conversation between Aragorn and Eomer and I was struck by just how disheartening and confusing change can be sometimes. In a society where our basic belief system is under attack and where supporting fundamental tenants of the Christian faith are called intolerance, it is easy to begin to question our definitions of good, right, and necessary. I don't want to be intolerant and I certainly don't want to be hateful, so just how necessary is it for me to stand firm on some of these issues...
...And then, in the most unlikely of places, I read this:
After pursuing Merry and Pippen for days, who are captives of the evil and dirty Uruk-hai, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas come across Eomer and the Rohirrim. Aragorn gives Eomer sad and distressing tidings of Gandalf's death and Eomer proclaims:
It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange. Elf and Dward in company walk in our daily fields; and fold speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?And then Aragorn responds in this way:
As he ever has judged. Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them...It is quotes like this that make reading worthwhile. Who knew a person could be so encouraged by a simple Ranger from the North.
