SoCS: Resting is Not the Same as Giving Up and Why I Gave Up on The Rings of Power

Today’s prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “throw in the towel.” Use the phrase “throw in the towel” somewhere in your post. Enjoy!

To “throw in the towel” means to quit something, maybe give up on something, after having worked on it for a while. Where does this phrase come from? Is it a football term? Don’t those football guys carry towels around? lol. I’m not a big fan of football. Maybe that’s un-American to some folks. Okay, the sport itself is okay I guess, okay. Stop saying okay. But I never really got the huge national extravagant $$$ part of it. But I didn’t really want to go there.

In general, where does one throw the towel? In the laundry basket? If a towel is dirty, then you should throw it in. That brings me back to what I really wanted to write about, and that is that sometimes it’s okay to quit. If something is not healthy, if it’s not working, and you’ve tried to the point of insanity or toxicity, and the fate of the world does not depend on your endeavor, then throw in the towel.

As a side note, resting or taking a break is not the same as quitting. I made a meme for that a while ago.

But sometimes, you just need to throw in the towel. About a week ago, I made the decision to throw in the towel on Amazon Prime which I got for the sole purpose of watching The Rings of Power. This was not an easy decision, because I am a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings (like some people are huge fans of football.) I can watch those movies, and The Hobbit movies over and over again, usually while doing stuff on the computer and stopping to watch when my favorite parts come on, like the parts with the elves.

After much consideration, including the cost of Amazon Prime and that I still want to watch Season 2 of Picard and Star Trek, Strange New Worlds on Paramount which costs less by the way, I decided that The Rings of Power was too dark for me. There were some characters I liked okay, but the orcs seemed a lot scarier, and the series just felt continually heavy. The final decision was the episode (still in season 1) where things happen to horses. I will not go into details (except to say there is fire involved), and I know it’s just a movie and those things didn’t really happen to the horses, but when you love animals and have a good imagination, it can be traumatic. And sometimes horses do get hurt on movie sets. So there. It’s done. There are plenty of other things to watch and books to read, and when the old LOTR and Hobbit movies come on cable, I’ll watch them again.

I had to look up the origin of throwing in the towel. It comes from boxing. The trainer throws in the towel to save his boxer when it is clear he’s not going to win. That way, he can live to fight another day, which brings us back to the idea that it’s okay to take a break and rest a while before going back into the ring of life.

And now, a message from Gandalf.

~~~

To learn more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.

SoCS: The Lord of the Rings and Letters from Vietnam

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check,

but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday

deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay…

small acts of kindness and love.”

Gandalf in The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Today’s prompt is the word, “ring,” to be used in any form and to have fun with.

Fun comes in many forms. One way I have fun is to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit movies. Being a huge fan, I can watch these movies over and over again, especially the parts with the elves.

LOTR is about heroism, good winning over evil, sacrifice, fellowship, loyalty, natural magic, and more set in a place that allows me to escape the things I want to escape from that I will not mention. But the qualities and messages are still relevant in reality.

There’s a scene toward the end of the trilogy when Sam and Frodo are exhausted and don’t know if they will survive. They reminisce about their sweet home, The Shire. Sam imagines the goldilocks girl, barmaid he would like to marry. The reminiscing starts at 1 minute. Be sure to watch til the end when the Eagles come!

Coincidentally, but not really, I’ve been reading about all these things in my dad’s letters from Vietnam since Veterans Day.

I’m reading them for research for the novel I’m writing for NaNoWriMo. Reading the letters is slowing me down, but it needs to be done this way. So what if I don’t write 50,000 words by Nov. 30? It will be okay.

My dad’s letters show how much he adored my mother. He writes of dreaming of her constantly while asleep and while awake in Vietnam. It almost seems like he puts her on a pedestal. The dreams and images of her keep him going, keep him sane, and give him hope to stay alive to come home to her.

I watched a video about another guy talking about doing this in Vietnam, dreaming about his girlfriend kept him going, sane, alive. Let see if I can find it…. The speaker, Dr. Earhart, was a high school teacher after he got back. Toward the end of the video, at around 13 minutes, he talks about the girlfriend that had sent him a “Dear John” letter. The whole video is eye opening.

My dad’s letters mention that a lot of guys got “Dear John,” letters. Maybe that’s why he expressed so much love for my mom in his letters and always signed them,

All My Love,

Your Husband Forever,

Jim

When things are going badly, when we don’t know what’s going to happen, even when it seems like we might not make it, dreaming of a better future, imagining holding our loved ones in our arms, being with family in our homeland, these are legitimate coping skills. Valuable survival skills. And so we keep on doing those small acts of kindness and love to keep the darkness at bay whenever and wherever we might be.

…

For more Streams of Consciousness, rules, and such, please visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 14/2020

Frodo Loses a Finger, And Saves the World

I’d rather not think about Frodo getting his finger bitten off by Gollum at the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s one of those things you’d rather not think about, but you can’t really forget it once it’s recalled.

The Lord of the Rings series is one of my favorites. It certainly fits with the “Anything is Possible” theme.

After all those trials – mountain climbing, orcs, giant spiders – Frodo gets his finger bitten off (so Gollum can get the ring) but he keeps going and even reaches up for his buddy Sam’s hand to be saved from falling off the cliff. And, in spite of Frodo’s hand and wrist being slippery with all that blood, Sam – good, decent, loyal Sam – is able to pull Frodo up to safety. But they have to run fast, because the whole place is falling apart!  And they do all this on a few crumbs of bread. You almost never see them eat, and Gollum threw their food over the cliff. I can’t imagine doing all that with my blood sugar issues. I suppose adrenaline would help.

It just goes to show you, anything is possible when the stakes are high and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

I’ll try to think about this next time I go to the gym. Or next time I don’t feel like going to the gym. Whenever I watch an exciting adventure movie, I always want to move, run, and jump afterward.

 

 

And let’s not forget the happy parts! Here’s a much prettier scene:

 

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: “finger.”

If you’d like to join in the Saturday Stream of Consciousness, visit Linda Hill’s blog:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 6/16

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

Routes and Roots

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Is money the root of all evil?

Is there more than one route to God?

Maybe I’ll come back to the God question.

Thrift and consignment stores are popping up all over. My husband manages one for the Rescue Mission. They get more clothes and books donated than they can keep up with. More than they have room for. He’s found a way to re-donate the extras. They get a lot of food donated too. In the job he had before, he saw grocery stores throwing away so much food. It was astounding and sad. Fortunately some of the food gets donated to non-profit agencies……  I’m getting to the money and evil part, eventually, maybe.

So how can there be so many clothes donated? The books I understand, because people now use  computers and phones more to read. But people keep buying clothes. More and more clothes. I get most of my clothes from second hand stores. I get most of my furniture second hand, too. It’s mostly a recycling thing. And a little a frugal thing.

Are we buying more stuff than we need? And what else can we do with our money?  I don’t want to buy new wood furniture, because someone had to cut down a tree for that.

Yes, lets get back to the forest!

My roots are in nature.

I see God in nature. I connect with God in nature.

I also see God in Jesus. I connect with God through Jesus.

Some people connect with God through prayer and songs. These work for me too.

Some find God through service work, through various books, or religious leaders.

Some don’t find God at all.  Part of me says I’m supposed to write how sad that is.

But you know what? I don’t feel all that sad about it. We all have a choice. We all have value. Regardless of whether we have found God, or Jesus, or Muhammad. Whether we are rich or poor or smart with numbers, or computers or money or whether we know how to make sassafras tea out of tree roots. We all have value.

I used to say, I didn’t care about money. But I do sort of like having enough for my mortgage and vet bills and food and my second hand clothes and gasoline….. and I’d like to travel more…… I like the things money can buy.  Some of the things. But money can’t buy the sky.  Money can’t buy true love.

And as my husband says his grandfather used to say, ” You can’t eat it.”

The desire for things and money is part of the problem, part of what is putting our world at risk. But there is something more. A lack of peace. A lack of love. We need more tolerance and cooperation.

That’s all for now.  Except that I wish I’d  written more about roots.

Here’s a poem, containing roots, I memorized many years ago from the Lord of the Rings….or maybe it was The Hobbit. This is how I remember it:

All that is gold does not glitter.

Not all those who wander are lost.

The old that is strong does not whither.

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken.

A light from the Shadows shall Spring.

Renewed shall be blade that was broken.

The crownless again shall be king.

JRR Tolkein

 

 

 

Today’s Stream of Consciousness post prompt was “route/root.”

If you’d like to jump into the stream, start here:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/09/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-1915/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

J.R.R. Tolkien, A Devout Catholic

I’m a huge fan of , The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R Tolkien. Having read it as a young adult, the film trilogy is something I could watch over and and over, and have.

So, I was quietly disconcerted last weekend when my father, flipping channels, wouldn’t stop at one of the trilogy movies on TV because he heard it was satanic.

I love my father dearly. He is one of the bravest men, I’ve ever known. No. He is the bravest and the strongest. Even though he’s 84. But he leans as far to the right as I do to the left. He’s a conservative.

I told my father that I thought J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian, and that I didn’t think he’d write a satanic book. But I didn’t take it any further, not wanting to stir things up, and not sure of my facts.

When I saw Linda’s SoCS prompt, the word, “ring,” my mind flitted around a few things and came to rest on The Lord of The Rings, and my father’s belief. I felt compelled to find out more.

The information I’m going to share below comes from this article by Drew Bowling,

http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/documents/how-did-jrr-tolkiens-catholicism-influence-his-writing-part-i-44031

which I found at aleteia.org, an organization which reports “the news of the world from a catholic perspective.”

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic. Before the trilogy was published, he wrote to his friend,  Father Robert Murray, saying, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision….”

Tolkien was a close friend of C.S. Lewis “who converted to Christianity in part because Tolkien convinced him that the Bible is the one true myth.”

He also attested time and again that the novel is mythical, not creedal.

That does not mean that The Lord of the Rings is not true, or that its author’s faith is not communicated through its pages. On the contrary, as Tolkien once said, “In making a myth, in practicing ‘mythopoeia,’ and peopling the world with elves and dragons and goblins, a story-teller… is actually fulfilling God’s purpose, and reflecting a splintered fragment of the true light.”
(From: Drew Bowling, “How did J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism influence his writing?)

The article also made a point I love about The Lord of the Rings bringing people, who may not be interested in Christianity,  to the bigger truths of God, of goodness and light.

 

I know that my copying and pasting got in the way of my stream of consciousness, and the article is a sort of intellectual, but the idea came along the stream, and I just had to grab it. I don’t know if I’ll bring this information to my dad. But if the right opportunity comes up, I’ve got more information about the man who wrote my beloved trilogy.

If you’d like to join in the Saturday Stream of Consciousness ring, visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/07/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-1115/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!