The Return of the King. By JRR Tolkien

‘Precious, precious, precious!’ Gollum cried. ‘My Precious! O my Precious!’ And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail Precious, and he was gone.” – JRR Tolkien

I thought there would have been an even greater description of the Ring being destroyed.

After all, it is called the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

But then I remembered, or was reminded by my wonderful wife, it was never about the ring. It’s called the Lord of the Rings, not the One Ring.

By this point I’d read over 900 pages of Tolkien’s classic tale of the quest in Middle Earth to destroy the ring, but I had forgotten, the ring was part of the quest, but it wasn’t the whole story.

Because the story went on. And boy did it go on. For like, a hundred plus more pages, too…

If I remember correctly, there wasn’t much left after this point in the movie. Which is probably why reading the book is much better than just watching the movie. I love watching the movie, but reading the book filled in the life that happened along the way. And it reminded me—

It wasn’t about the ring.

But I made the whole story about the ring.

And, yes, it is a major purpose of the book, it’s why all the characters met, it’s the focus of Frodo’s and Sam’s journey of destroying it, but life went much greater than the ring.

The story was much more than just about a ring.

How easy it is to get caught up in our own story, focused only on one thing—a job, a relationship, a house. When all of life is going on all around us, what’s right in front us can so easily engulf and choke out all the rest of life. 

And we miss it.

Until we slow down. Until the ring is destroyed. And like the rest of Middle Earth, the skies clear. The Lord of the Rings is destroyed, and a new age begins.

That’s what happens in the Return of the King. It’s the end of the 3rd Age, and the beginning of the Age of Men.

It’s the end of one, it’s the beginning of another.

And isn’t that what endings tend to feel like? I remember all of the inspirational quotes from our graduation in high school. Okay, I really don’t, but I do remember hearing something about it being the ending, but it’s really the beginning, or something like that. If I’d gone to college right away, I probably would have heard the same thing at my college graduation, too.

It’s all our common story. New life does come. And we do all experience the end of something right before the beginning of another. It’s helpful, otherwise we’d be still experiencing elementary school. 

Yes, even elementary school ends. (Some of us wish middle school had never begun.) 

I needed that reminder when I read this book (not about middle school, very few of us need reminded of middle school). I’d never read the trilogy before. I’m glad I read these fiction books over the last month. So far into 2023 I’ve read 19 books (by the time this posts, I’ll have read well over 25) and I needed something new. I needed to introduce novelty into my reading. It helped my brain continue to soak up all the other books I’ve read. It helped me dream, imagine, and explore something new.

I needed the adventure. 

It’s good to pick up something different once in a while—to introduce novelty into your life. Your brain thrives in the novelty, it grows, it adjusts—it’s refreshed by new.

And the story was a good reminder for me—there’s more to life than what I first may think is right in front of me.

I needed to introduce novelty into my reading. It helped my brain continue to soak up all the other books I’ve read. It helped me dream, imagine, and explore something new.

I’m learning that still.

I’m in the process of starting something new. The old has gone, the new has come. 

Now I’m ready to step into all the fullness of what’s next.

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