How to: Blog

Gah!  I am over a week late - no apology can suffice.  But perhaps results are the best apology?  Rather than spend hours I do not have finding, writing and honing a teaching from the text, I will instead let the curtain down a little on my process.  In other words:  How to blog!

Whenever I read a chapter, I take notes of meaningful quotes that crop up.  I then comb through my notes and find the one (or two or three) that really seem to have some meaning to unpack.  Then I write a draft.  Then I walk away for an hour or so, come back, edit and then post.

Today, however, I don't have time for that.  So instead, I am going to share all the quotes I took notes on and briefly write what I think they mean and what they can teach us.  A bunch of short thoughts.  All of these will be incomplete ideas.  But hopefully they will give you something to think about.

Synopsis!  This week (err, last week) we read two chapters:  "The Pyre of Denethor" & "The Houses of Healing."  They are emotionally opposing chapters - "The Pyre of Denethor" representing despair, and "The Houses of Healing" representing hope.  In the first chapter, Denethor attempts to burn himself and Faramir.  He has given up all hope of victory, and finds death more comforting than defeat.  Pippin and Gandalf intercede and Faramir is saved.  Denethor, however, still commits suicide.  He does not know that, at that moment, Aragorn has arrived and the battle is won.

In "The Houses of Healing," Merry, Eowyn, and many others have been brought into the city to be cared for.  However, it is clear that many need healing beyond what is in the city.  Aragorn secretly enters the city (He fears entering the city openly, as king, may divide the city into competing factions) and heals everyone.  Rumors begin to spread in the city that the king, who is foretold to have 'the hands of a healer,' has returned at last.

The quotes!

Pyre of Denethor

"And [Pippin] stood listening to the horns [of the arriving Rohirrim], and it seemed to him that they would break his heart with joy.  And never in after years could he hear a horn blown in the distance without tears starting in his eyes."

A piece on memories, on moments that affect us forever in small but significant ways.  I can't hear "Superfreak" without thinking of Eisner.  The phrase "secret word" always reminds me of Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

Connect to camp.  Everything we do can have a lasting impact, even if it is unintended.  It is hard to predict which of our actions will stick with people.  Always be a role model, always make positive moments.  At least make the tears people cry "in after years" happy ones.

"Can't you save Faramir?" [said Pippin]
"Maybe I can," said Gandalf, "But if I do, then others will die, I fear.  Well, I must come, since no other help can reach him.  But evil and sorrow will come of this.  Even in the heart of our stronghold the Enemy  has power to strike us..."
Then, having made up his mind, he acted swiftly.

Gandalf is clearly torn about what to do, but he acts without hesitation.  "When in thought, act as though you have all the time in the world.  When in action, act as though you are already too late.". Take time to consider the situation, but once you have a decision, run with it.  Rarely is inaction better than a poor action.

The Houses of Healing

"I will ride to Lossarnach with Ioreth behind me, and she shall take me to the woods, but not to her sisters." [said Gandalf]

Context:  Ioreth is a healer in the city who says there is a special weed that grows in the woods, but that she and her sisters knew a song that only the king knew how to use the weed as medicine.
Why does Gandalf specify the woods but not her sisters?  He needs the object, he does not need more information.  Gandalf also knows Ioreth would probably want to visit her family, but there is no time.

Why "the" woods and "her" sisters.  Perhaps because one cannot own the woods.  Something about family ties VS stewardship towards Earth.  Maybe?

"My friend, Gandalf said [to Eomer] you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields, but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours.  Yet [Eowyn] was doomed to wait upon an old man... and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he leaned on."

Surprisingly progressive, given everything else in the book.  It acknowledges, in an indirect way, that Eowyn was physically a women, but not necessarily a women on the inside.  Gender fluidity.  But is there something sexist in saying "a spirit and courage" to match yours?  As if women usually have less spirit and courage?  Or maybe they have different spirit and courage?  How is Eowyn a role model for women?  And isn't it peculiar that the women we learn the most about and sympathize with the most ends up acting similarly to all the men in the book, so much so that she dresses up as a man?  Is Eowyn a feminist figure (a woman doing all the things men can do, and maybe more (killing the Nazgul))?  Or is Eowyn an affirmation that women can only become worthy of praise by acting like men? 

[Eowyn whispered] "To health?  It may be so.  At least while there's an empty saddle of some fallen rider that I can fill, and there are deeds to do.  But to hope?  I do not know."

Eowyn sees herself as a tool, and that she has a goal to achieve.  Health is needed for that.  But hope allows one to see beyond current circumstances, and to see what possibilities lie beyond.  Without hope, Eowyn becomes a tragic figure stuck in a narrow mindset.  This quote also sets the table for Eowyn's eventual 'redemption' (which is also distasteful to modern minds.  Eowyn's 'redemption' basically requires her to become "a good wife."  Can we have wider hopes for woman today?  Is this Tolkien being held back by the standards of his time, or was Tolkien, in fact, a sexist?)

OK, that's it!  Sunday I have my next day off, and I intend to do the post that was due THIS week, and then Monday morning the one that is due this Sunday.  And then we'll be back on track.  Until "camp" interrupts again.

PS. Camp will interrupt again.  It always does.