The best way to get into history and dark, sad, scary parts of history, is to find the people who carried through them.
Find the normal people, the unmarked, the overlooked, and they will rise as the demand for great deeds grows.
The Fellowship is centered around a very placid hobbit who came into possession of the ring of power by happenstance, almost. It wasn’t the great find of the century to be touted.
Just Frodo Baggins, who only intended to bring the ring to someone wiser and better suited to decide what to do with it. Just a normal guy. And then the need rose, and he stood to meet it. And when Frodo stood to meet the need for a bearer to bring the ring across the world, others stood in support.
It’s the regular people that have driven the greatest victories that have surged civilization forward and brought down evil. It’s the regular people who pay the price for this great deed to be done. It’s a few good men. Ordinary people who rise to challenges that nobody should ask of them.
And the ones who survive it are never the same again.
The problem of pain sits with them for the rest of their lives, because they stood and they bought peace for the rest of us, and only they will ever understand that cost. And it costs everything.
It costs the good people the most, because good people should never be so damaged… but it’s the good people who most reliably will stand to take that horrible task to its end.
Tolkien took eight underestimated people to shepherd one unlikely figure to, quite literally, Mount Doom. And only two make it there, and Frodo’s considerable strength fails in the last steps. His friend picks him up and lends him the strength to go on. They see their doom, and are snatched up by their friends who haven’t forgotten them.
The bonds of friendship bind people and therefore alliances together. That’s how they win. They took up the good fight, and in order to survive the harrowing battle, someone has to keep hold of hope. They hope. They keep that in their hearts when the sky goes dark. Because they trust their friends. The day is dark, but there is still sun beyond the clouds.
It can’t all be grimdark and gritty and sadness all the time.
The grim men can have kind hearts. The sorrowing soul can still see beauty. The wounded can still find healing. The broken can be found and restored.
There must be people that care.
There is still good in this world, and we must see it.
When the good people stand, they tend to outnumber the few that are great. The good people who do what they can are who pull the most of the load.
It’s the simple goodness that we build on. The simple goodness is what paves the solid road for the great ideals to rest steadily upon.
You can do the simple things that are good.
