[Kalla]

Very interesting topic!! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] As for me, if you want to know if you can see the light within someone's soul, look at your own life. Are there people you feel upon meeting them are warm and open and truthful and others the opposite? I think this is something that humans possess, but few use anymore, giving way to value logic more than intuition. Also, look at a young child...never have I seen better judges of character. As for pity and mercy...I do not feel there IS justice in this world. To me, what would be justice for a murderer is not the death penatly, but to make him/her understand and feel what was done. To understand and feel the pain of the life that was taken and to be truly remorseful thereafter. From personal experience, I can honestly say that there are times that I have forgiven in circumstances that I did not think I could forgive. There are also those times when I anger for something much less. (the more human side of me I suppose as the personalities are divided up in the book) If someone came to attack me...I don't know how I'd react, but in moments where I have been attacked in ways nonphysically...I do or say something to get out of the situation, or I just go on and let go, even if it takes some time to do so. Lol, I hope this all makes sense...it's getting late, so I appologize if any of this post becomes incoherent. :P

Also, I believe there really are Gandalf's and Frodo's and Aragorn's and Boromir's, etc in this world. It's true that we each have our moments of similarity, but I think there truly are people who are similar to them. Great wise people, like gandalf...hmm...ghandi? mother teresa? pick whichever character you see fit the best, and I can find someone who is exactly like them in life. Personally, I've had to take several personality tests, which I concede are not the end all be all of personalities but can be quite interesting, over the years for various classes I took. Every time I came out with the same personality description, no matter my mood or what type of test. It is very very similar to one of the characters in this book and in fact with information I've read on them, is what this character has been classified as. (which i found out only last week) I've also had comments from people which support this. I'm not saying we have to worry about getting the one ring destroyed, but there is dark just as there is light. Perhaps I'm going off on a side note, but I feel things are not so different as there were so long ago, just different surroundings and things, but life, our souls, our dilemmas are still the same. *shrug* Anyway, I think pity and mercy ARE part of human nature...it just depends on the person. There are some children who are very very gentle and merciful and would share all their food and never think a thing of it, while others will greedily take whatever they can from others. I've seen the same with adults.

I also don't think pity or mercy is a sign of power or inferiority. I think it is a way of understanding and forgiveness. When I forgive someone, I forgive the action they did, but I do not feel them dimished as a person...I do not feel they are less having erred. If you are merciful, you understand they may see things differently because they've had different experiences, not that those experiences are less than yours or they are less of a person. At least this is what I believe. I dunno, I guess I"m more of a hobbit in things like this because I feel people often make it harder than it is. We all have an inner light and we can all see it in others, we just have to look...but to truely see others, we must know ourselves and I think therein lies the problem for many people. *shrug* As I said before...excellent topic. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]