The Lord of the Rings....and Gay Rights

I seriously feel like this is turning into a gay rights blog...that wasn't my intention, but I feel like it all needs to be said. I'm up at my grandparents for Thanksgiving (cut the last 3 classes I had, had to get out of Provo) and as such, I've already watched heaps of Star Trek and Lord of the Rings.

I really love Lord of the Rings (and Star Trek, but that's different). There are so many moments when it really stands up, says what it means to be human. There are specific parts in the trilogy that I really just love...this is one of them. It's always meant a lot to me, but now I think I needed it more than ever.

"How can that be your decision?"

"This is not our war."

"But you're part of this world! Aren't you? You must help! Please! You must do something."

"You are young and brave, Master Merry. But your part in this tale is over. Go back to your home."

"Maybe Treebeard's right. We don't belong here Merry...it's too big for us. What can we do, in the end? We've got the Shire. Maybe we should go home."

"The fires of Isengard will spread. And the woods of Tuckbourough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone. There won't be a Shire, Pippin."

This always reminded me of this poem. Gay rights aren't just gay rights...they're human rights. If you let others' rights get taken away, no one will be there to stand up for yours

“I can’t do this, Sam.”

“I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mister Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you... and meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mister Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, but they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

"What are we holding onto, Sam?"

"That there’s some good, in this world, Mr Frodo….and it’s worth fighting for."

"So much death....what can men do against such reckless hate?"

"Ride out...ride out and meet them head on."