55. Path and Purpose
During a Delta, Colorado winter, circa 1952, I remember my father reading one of his Zane Grey novels and my mother knitting something gray, while I lay on the floor indulging in one of my favorite pastimes… taking a fairytale flight of fancy. The coals would be crackling in the potbelly stove, knitting needles clicking, the aroma of my father’s pipe of cherry blend tobacco permeating the air, as a Tinkerbell like fairy would perch upon my shoulder and read along with me. Fairies, elves, trolls, dwarves, unicorns and all other magical creatures truly existed in my child-of-eight imagination.
We lived on a farm surrounded by open fields and copse like areas with small streams running here and there… ideal environments for fairytale creatures. Needless to say, my childhood was and still remains a fairytale land of wonderment to me. When I wasn’t reading about them I was drawing pictures of them. The Good Fairy in The Wizard of Oz was the first “live” fairy I had ever seen… exactly as I had imagined. Over the years, my wishes upon twinkling stars have not been in vain, and I attribute much to my fairies and elves who watch over me.
It wasn’t until my early adult years that I discovered the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, which described the world of Hobbits and Middle Earth, and a time when men walked among other worldly beings. His Ring Trilogy again brought the world of fairies and elves alive in such a way that once more I had no doubt of their existence. Our world history includes many ancient cultures after all, one only need to delve beyond the records of our Gregorian calendar and revisit "a land before time."
The film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring is perhaps one of the best Christmas gifts any of us could possibly receive this year. To visually experience one's imagination carried beyond limitation is an exhilaration that leaves one utterly speechless. It turns out that I have not been alone in imagining real fairies or seeing the parallels in our current times with ancient times of Middle Earth. Absolute power still corrupts beyond human endurance and the lust for power is ever a driving force for good and bad alike.
Whether it is possession of a golden ring or the black gold of oil, power belongs to those that possess either. Wars continue to be waged in order to prevent those that would do evil from gaining too much power. Even though times are dark and drear during war, hope always remains because of those who are pure of heart and soul. We accept that there can be no appreciation of light without the dark to contrast it.
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