-a kingly gift-

[Gandalf said,] "Mithril! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim. The Elves dearly loved it, and among many uses they made of it ithildin, starmoon, which you saw upon the doors. Bilbo had a corslet of mithril-rings that Thorin gave him. I wonder what has become of it? Gathering dust still in Michel Delving Museum, I suppose."

"What?" cried Gimil, startled out of his silence. "A corslet of Moria-silver? That was a kingly gift!"

"Yes," said Gandalf. "I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the whole Shire and everything in it."

Frodo said nothing, but he put his hand under his tunic and touched the rings of his mail-shirt. He felt staggered to think that he had been walking about with the price of the Shire under his jacket. Had Bilbo known? He felt no doubt that Bilbo knew quite well. It was indeed a kingly gift. But now his thoughts had been carried away from the dark Mines, to Rivendell, to Bilbo, and to Bag End in the days while Bilbo was still there. He wished with all his heart that he was back there, and in those days, mowing the lawn, or pottering among the flowers, and that he had never heard of Moria, or mithril--or the Ring.

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

The House of Tom Bombadil

"Who are you, Master?" he [Frodo] asked.

"Eh, what?" said Tom, sitting up, and his eyes glinting in the gloom. "Don't you know my name yet? That's the only answer. Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless? But you are young and I am old. Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless -- before the Dark Lord came from Outside."

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien. <3

"Far over the misty mountains cold..."

There are some stories that stick with you forever. Lord of the Rings is one of those for me. I can never divorce myself from anything that Tolkien has written, nor could I want to. His tales of Bilbo and the Ring, of Frodo and the Ring, of all the peoples of Middle-Earth, of each Age, of the Elves, dwarves, Hobbits...all these are as much a part of me now as breathing. Lately, I have been coming back to Lord of the Rings as a place I can take refuge from this world. I do not have my books with me here at school, but I can think about them, I can read the poems and songs online, I can listen to the movie soundtracks.

It is a world I can identify with, where the struggle between good and evil is clearly defined. I cannot understand the vulgarity of this world, especially at a Christian college. Conversations become utterly vulgar and and I sometimes wonder where people actually see the line between amusement and sin. We're all sinful human beings, of course, and I will not place myself above fault. However, it sickens me.

This is one of the reasons I reach for a story like Lord of the Rings. I can read these books and they are clean, they are wholesome. I am satisfied when I read them, because I have improved my mind and my spirit, rather than blotted them with darkness.

So I ask these questions: Whatever happened to wholesome entertainment? Wholesome conversations? Do people even make an effort to be wholesome anymore?

Does all this make any sense? It has been weighing on my heart for a long time now, but I am not good at articulating my personal feelings.

I suppose this post is about two different things, but this Bible verse will tie them both together:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." ~Philippians 4:8 NIV.