The Hobbit

Greetings and very much hope your 2013 is off to a good beginning.  Susan and I usually attend a movie on New Year’s eve and this year saw The Hobbit.  By now some of you might be a tad tired of the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Ring trilogy so may give this movie a pass but I hope you don’t.  True the movie overdoes special effects (there’s even a 3-D version) especially fighting scenes with trolls, goblins, wolves, and stone-giants but it does celebrate a theme emphasized in this blog: the value of adventure in our lives.  Though the movie may not successfully capture that Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit) is fifty years of age at the beginning of the story (as intended by author J.R.R. Tolkien) it does capture Bilbo’s contentment, complacency, and reluctance to venture far from home and habit.  When encouraged by the wizard Gandalf “to share in a adventure” Bilbo responds that hobbits “are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures.  Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things!  Make you late for dinner!  I can’t think what anybody sees in them.”  Yet, Bilbo does participate in an adventure and, as the wizard predicts, it changes the hobbit’s life forever.  It really is a grand story and a fun movie especially if, as an adult, you still enjoy having adventures.  

In retrospect, 2012 was a grand year for experiencing what two fascinating cultures believe about the origin of the world, the niche human beings and other living things have in it, and the meaning and purpose of existence: Pharonic Egypt (to be added shortly) and Tibetan Buddhism.  I’ve added some photos to the Travel section of the blog.

Again, have a great year!