Frodo: “I can’t do this, Sam.”
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, Mr. 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 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. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something.”
Frodo: “What were they holding onto, Sam?”
Sam: “That there is some good in the world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.”
This dialogue took place in the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Two Towers. Best friends, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, were exhausted from having journeyed to the outskirts of Mordor to destroy the Ring of Power that only brought suffering, hurt, and cruelty. Where one does not simply walk, two hobbits were preparing to enter. Frodo Baggins had been chosen to bear the Ring, both a symbol of and what brings forth the greed of any creature who encounters it. After everything Sam and Frodo had gone through, every pain, anger, and despair they bore, they came to rest in the crevasse of a mountain before embarking on the last part of their journey. Despite seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, Frodo wanted to give up. Sam comforts and rallies Frodo (along with viewer of the movie and reader of the book) with these powerfully simple and poetic words.
I fear that after having endured recent years of turmoil, injustice, and the effects of human sin and indecency, we have become Frodo Baggins; We have lost hope, lost sight of the fact that there is good in the world. In saying, “I can’t do this,” Frodo was truly saying, ‘If I destroy the cause of all this pain and ugliness, we will sooner be forced to face the wounds it left behind.” While the faint ringing of the loss of life and innocence, the further marring of true liberty and equality among humanity, the evident drift from the way God intended life to be, and the rise of monsters is still in our ears, we must take to heart what this conversation can teach us.
1. We Must Express Our Grief and Feelings of Hopelessness.
Frodo expressed to Sam how he felt unabashedly, with full confidence in his friend to listen and/or give wisdom, and we need to do the same. If you feel sad, disheartened, or angry because of recent events like Frodo, do not try to find a reason for your thoughts and feelings to be valid because they already are. It is not inherently wrong to feel the way you do, it is however, inherently unhealthy to try to suppress how you feel or even to treat your emotions as a tap, releasing your emotions but only partially to try to control them. Feel everything to its extent, and express your dissatisfaction and grief through your personal outlet, but do not let them define you. Finally, take care of yourself. Protect your heart while it is still fragile, so that it does not become hardened.
2. Speak Out and Take Action
Patriotism is fighting for your beliefs and against what is sickening your country because you love it too much to let it stay the way it is, not condoning its actions out of belief that it does no wrong. Art is both a way to hold on and show what you are holding onto. Make risky art, sing what others do not want to say, take pictures of what people want to hide, write truth, and make videos that capture life. Creativity is powerful because it joins the things fascists fear, the things they cannot kill: your voice, hope, and conviction, especially after they are expressed. Use your gifts to speak about what matters to you and ponder the products of those who are doing the same. Speak out on social media sensibly, treat the resources afforded you as the privilege they are but beware to not misuse them. Pray. You would not already pray if you did not believe it to be powerful. Prayer is often painted to be an excuse or a lack of action but that is not true. Taking action does not and cannot look the same for everyone. We need artists, speakers, prayer warriors, and people storming Twitter because it took all the different voices in Whoville shouting at once to break the barrier for their voices to be heard to keep them from being destroyed.
3. Find a Samwise Gamgee in Your Life and Be One for Someone Else.
Just as it is healthy for us to express our own grief, it is healthy to listen to the grief of others. It is just as crucial to have someone in your life to listen to you when you need them as it is to be that person for someone else. However, both must be done in moderation. Sam and Frodo often switched roles as someone who needed to express how they felt and the person who listened to them. We must be ready to encourage, rally, or comfort, and yet be ready to do so wordlessly. Above all, we must listen as someone pours out their heart to us.
Keep praying, keep loving, keep creating, and keep facing a new day with kindness, bravery, and heart for that is how we will have strength to carry on.
