I have forgotten to include development of social skills in my hurry at my last post in his thread. I have never really used the Internet much before the Downs, but now I am glad to be able to communicate with people from all over the world with whom I share the same passion for Tolkien's works. I have also been able to discuss non-Tolkien things with a Downer. It is really interesting for me to discover others' opinions on things, and that has led me to learn to respect the views of others, especially if they are different from my own.
But alas, it does seem in my case that the reason behind disagreements between me and my mother is her lack of knowledge on LotR. She hasn't really watched the movies nor read the books, but watching the movie trailers she automatically deduced that the story involves a lot of violence. She fails to see what interests us so much, so she thinks that LotR is rather not worth the time and energy and whatever we "waste" on it. My brother and I try to convince her to see LotR for what it really is, and I do hope she will find time to.
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