Pippen and Merry
September 3, 2006
What do you want out of life? What do I want out of life? Sometimes I just want to be able to settle down in a comfortable home with green grass, raise happy kids, and read as many books as I want.
Another part of me really wants to be questing. That part wants to preserve and even improve on our world through some kind of heroic activity.
Maybe Tolkien expressed the two desires as well as anyone with his portrayal of the Shire on the one hand and the lives of the hobbits who left on the other hand. I want the life of the Shire. In one way the life of the Shire is the point. It also seems to miss part of the point: can I live a life to myself if there is a way to make the world at large a better place? And what of Pippen and Merry? They grew in a way that those who stayed at home never would.
