Then and now: The Lord of the Rings was cool because it was magical, seemingly without limitation, and our parents were NOT there. (What was in that pipe-weed, anyway?) I'm now amazed by how much just washed right over me then, that now resonates so deeply. For example:the parting of Sam and Frodo at the end of ROTK. When a teen, I could not imagine losing a friend to death. When I did, at age 33, it was all the more poignant because he also could not be healed--this was AIDS in the days before protease inhibitors--and was suffering, and yet I *so* wanted him not to go. And like Sam, I live in the hope that the separation is not permanent.
This posting is not simply for the purposes of catharsis: was wondering how "Tolkien revisited" resonated for others in this group.
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"And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water."
-The Return of the King
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