Elred
Registered on
May-06-2007
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Message #5136 posted by Elred (Info) August 16, 2007 12:35:29 ET
Tokin' to Tolkien
I never liked Frodo. Call me unhip, but he always seemed to me to be too whiny and mercurial. Bilbo, on the other hand, was the kitten's tits. Feel free to disagree.
I often wonder, when I'm particularly stoned, how more civilized human culture would operate were the baseline levels of temperament, maturity and wisdom just a few ticks higher than they are today. Not too hard to imagine, really. Perhaps Ohio voters wouldn't have gone batshit for Bush? Maybe Dick Cheney wouldn't snarl quite so much.
I just re-read the beginning of The Silmarillion dealing with Middle Earth's god, "angels" (of which Gandalf was apparently one,) demi-dieties (Galadriel) devil (Morgoth, aka Malkuth) and sundry creatures. Poring back over the Lothlorien chapters in Fellowship, I felt newly introduced to the nuances of Sylvan (elven) culture.
What I like most in these chapters is the feeling of being included in a culture far older than mankind in which mortality becomes a choice or happenstance and there is a sense of timelessness, stillness, reflection. Wisdom. That's the key. And yet for all their ponderous thinking Tolkien's elves are deft archers, sly hunters and physically stronger than their human counterparts. They joke, too, but one gets the sense there's less bathroom and gallows humor than the average human would like.
But we're not average people, are we?
Pot smokers have somewhat of a reputation as being sluggards. It's true, you have to commit an hour or two to the experience and that may seem like sloth to some people. I medicate with pot for migraines, and most times I cook it into food in small doses, so mine is usually a solitary and hopefully low-intensity experience. Thus I may not be completely qualified to render an opinion on the subject. Even so, I've found the following, on the rare blue moon I toke with friends, to be true. Having a good smoking experience requires you be in a reflective, receptive state of mind, have like-minded companions who can disagree without becoming overly competetive and are able to savor the sweet nectar of life's beauties. I find in that ideal much in common with the behavior of Tolkien's elves. So, I suppose it's just a pipe dream, so to speak. But I have hope one day I may see a cultural shift away from outright competition and toward a more responsible, contructive humanity than we have today.
Elred
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