On limits

Still catching up from wedding/honeymoon, but this time only 1 week behind!

For November 4th we read "Fog on the Barrow-downs."  In it, Frodo and friends leave Tom Bombadil's house, but soon get trapped by a Barrow-wight.  Tom has to come and save them.  But before he can, Frodo - the only one who has remained conscious - despairs:

He thought he had come to the end of his adenture, and

a terrible end, but the thought hardened him.  He

found himself stiffening, as if for a final spring.

The text goes on to tell us the wight's skeletal hand is crawling toward a sword near the bodies of Sam, Merry, and Pippin.  Then:

[Frodo] wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him,

and he might find a way out.  He thought of himself running free over the grass,
grieving for Merry and Sam and Pippin, but free and alive himself.
Gandalf would admit that there had been nothing else he could do.

But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong.
He could not leave his friends so easily.

"Is Frodo a coward?"
"No!  He considers leaving his friends, but he does not."
"Why would it be cowardly to leave his friends?"
"Because his friends need him!"
"His friends are important, yes, but if he fails the Quest all will fall to darkness, anyway.  Had he fled in order to complete the Quest, he would not have been a coward.  Maybe cold-hearted ("There was nothing to else he could do"), but not a coward."
"Indeed, there is something he could do, and he did it."
"It's curious to me Frodo's imagination attributes the line to Gandalf.  Even in his own mind he could not absolve himself - he needed someone else to do it."
"That is cowardice - to think he was forced to do it.  Agency is a burden. It is easier to pretend you don't have a choice."
"So Frodo is a coward after all?"
"He would have been, had he abandoned his friends and pretended he had no choice.  But he did not do that.  He resisted."
"But even his resistance is not from him: "The thought hardened him", "he found himself stiffening," "the courage that had been awakened", "He could not leave his friends".  Frodo is the subject of forces beyond his control.  Indeed, he appears to still have no choice.  Why does the Creative Wizard use such passive language to describe our hero?"
"We know Frodo grows into a hero.  But he does not begin as one.  He has been guided so far by others - Bilbo, Gandalf, Gildor, Merry, Tom.  To have him suddenly take up responsibility on his own would be unbelievable.  He needs more time for growth."
"And this is where it begins for him.  Gandalf had said something deep in Hobbits makes them courageous and dependable.  This desperate situation makes Frodo find that hobbit courage - or allows that courage to find him.  Just two chapters ago Frodo lost his wits because of a troublesome willow-tree.  Now he is facing a malevolent spirit.  Somehow this worse danger brings out the best in him."
"As it can be for all of us.  You can't find your limits unless you are pushed beyond them, and you can't expand them unless you challenge them."
"How can we push our limits?"
"Come on - That's an easy question."
"Then answer it!"
"Find the limit of what you've done and surpass it.  But how something can be done is actually less important than why."
"But we need to know how."
"Surely, but I bet you know how to do many things you don't do."
"Well, of course."
"Why don't you do them?"
"Why do I need to do something just because I know how?"
"So then knowing how is not enough.  Why you need to do something is more important.  And if you have a good why, you can easily find the how - or at least a good starting place of a how.  Frodo wants to protect his friends."
"Frodo has experiences courage.  He thought he was at the end and refused to face it quietly.  He may not yet know how best to employ it (Remember Tom ultimately still has to save them), and while here it siezes him, eventually he will be able to feel that courage rising and sieze it himself, using it to his own ends."
"The text calls it courage, but perhaps it should be revulsion."
"What do you mean?"
"Frodo doesn't act particularly brave.  The way he attacks the wight is a bit manic - and ineffectual.  Frodo doesn't get courage, he gets fed up.  Similarly, some we may find we have an unexpected viceral reaction to injustice in the world.  A wrong we cannot stomach, cannot ignore: A peer bullied for being different; Management exploiting workers; Workers cutting corners; A friend in an abusive relationship; Recognizing we are in an abusive relationship;  An animal being mistreated."
"Aah yes - like Frodo at first we are siezed by righteousness, that something must be done.  But what?"
"We may not know, and like Frodo we may fail the test, and call upon others.  Or do nothing, too shocked at the depravity.  Perhaps shocked at our own reaction.  Some limits, when pushed, push back."
"Is this failure?"
"It is - but it is not cowardice.  The experience will harden us and clarify things about ourselves we did not yet know.  Next time we will do better, and the next time, and the next time.  We may make mistakes, but we will improve."
"But Frodo fails, in the end.  He gives up the Quest inside Mount Doom.  Cowardly or not, he could not do it."
"But that is not Frodo's test here.  It is: Can I surrender my friends?  The answer is: not if I can help it. Frodo is in the end overwhelmed by the Ring, but he never directly forsakes his friends.  Here, he stumbles on how to do it - but he knows that he must, and that drives him to do better next time."
"Frodo Baggins: Not as useless as he once was."
"A fitting subtitle for all of our birthdays as long as we are on this Earth."

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ChatGPT contributed about 0% to this post's final version.  Mostly because, being behind, I'm in a rush.