Lord of the Rings
April 4, 2003

I was watching Lord of the Rings the other day, and I wanted to share my favorite scene with you. I like to share quotes with you because you can interpret the quote in any way you wish. I pick out certain ones, but they can mean anything to you. And hopefully, you will answer "Yes" to something from them.

This quote comes from the scene where the Fellowship of the Ring is traveling through the dwarf's mines. Frodo is talking first. Please forgive me if it's not totally accurate because I copied it by ear, and it's difficult to hear the lines sometimes.

"There's something down there."
"It's Golem."
"Golem?"
"He's been following us for three days."
"He escaped the dungeons of Baraduo?"
"Escaped or set loose? He hates and loves the ring as he hates and loves himself. He will never be rid of his need for it."
"It is a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."
"Pity? It was pity that staid Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal on death and judgement. Even the very wise can't see all ends. My heart tells me that Golem has some part to play yet, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of men."
"I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring. In which case, you also were meant to have it. And that's an encouraging thought."

This is partially irrelevant, but I don't care if it is. I wrote this the other day and wanted to share it with you.

The Day of March 21, 2003

I woke up on my back and felt secure, the cool sheets wrapped tightly around my body. Mechanically, I reached for the remote and turned on the news to discover an air raid in Baghdad. I despaired as I watched the bombs engulf the sky. It seemed like a sickening mimicry of a Fourth of July celebration, and then I understood just how true my thought was. I realized that I�d never truly seen a live war before; that I was probably the witness to someone�s death. I wondered if, out of the millions of people watching that same broadcast, anyone was also thinking about the death of those involved. It would be so easy to forget of the people involved or to refuse to acknowledge their sacrifice. It would be so easy to watch the plume of smoke rise from what was once a human creation and call it �A US Victory�. No, no, not a US victory, I thought, but a US necessity. Or so I had been told. I wondered at how much I knew of the whole situation verses what I had been told. I had been told everything, practically had my opinion told to me. I believed US action was a necessity and that the Iraqis would be better off as a democracy, but why did it have to be this way? Why did everything have to be this way? I glanced up at the �Happy Birthday Laura� sign taped to my wall and the streamers that were strung across my room, left by my friends the day before. Suddenly, they seemed inappropriate, and I threw off the covers and tore them down. However, I could not reach the fishing line that had once suspended them. I left it zigzagging across my room, bare, in a sad mockery�even with the fa�ade thrown away, the framework will always be there.

*I've also added another quote to "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" entries in case you want to check that out. I'd suggest reading "The Fountainhead" quote first.

Love,
Lemme