Merry, Pippin and Hobbit Kickassery

"Merry and Pippin sat on the bottom step, feeling both unimportant and unsafe," (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers).

Oddly enough, they felt safer sitting on the giant talking tree.

In my opinion, Merry and Pippin are the two characters in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers who perform the greatest of deeds while receiving the least amount of recognition for what they have done. Take, for instance, the siege of Isengard.

If Isengard had been allowed to stand; then, the War of the Ring would have been won by Sauron. Instead, Merry and Pippin help to rouse the Ents and overthrow Sarumon. This prevented the forces of darkness from attacking Helm's Deep on both sides. Sounds pretty freaking epic, doesn't it?

For Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas, the novel focuses on how brave/strong/true they are while displaying their epic deeds IRT (or in as real a time as you can have in a novel). Merry and Pippin, however, recount their deeds to the aforementioned heroes while they're having dinner. Because nothing is more heroic than dinner theatre.

It's like a reverse lemon squeeze.

As someone who is less than the societal ideal of masculine, it is interesting to see how that masculine ideal developed. Tall, brawny, bearded (except for Legolas), brave and selfless are the adjectives that can be applied to the heroes of LOTR. Meanwhile, the hobbits are short, fearful, selfish, childish and frail. But it's the hobbits who regularly save the day.

But it's the "heroic" construction of the masculine ideal that we all hold to. It's a limiting ideal, and one that not everyone can live up to. Helm's Deep would have fallen if not for the actions of Aragorn...and the actions of Merry and Pippin. As a society, maybe we should remember that you don't have to be Aragorn to be kickass.

Objectively, what's better-second breakfast or an undead army to fight your battles?

Frozen, Family Rules and Wounds

“Don’t let them in, don’t let them see/Be the good girl you always have to be/Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know,” (“Let It Go”, Frozen, 2013).

As a 90s child, I learned a fair number of life lessons from Disney movies. Try to do the right thing, treat people with respect and dignity, don’t trust that one uncle who is named after his most distinguishing characteristic and literally has a different color palate than the rest of the family.

To be totally fair, Scar did look super evil.

Obviously, not all of these lessons translate very well to adult life. 

When you watch a Disney movie, one that came out as an adult, those lessons and messages can hit you in ways you never expect. For instance, Frozen is easily one of the best Disney movies in years. It is smartly written, funny, does not rely on a romantic plot line to provide happiness and the songs are beautiful.

But that quote above, where Elsa leaves her kingdom, and fear, behind to embrace who she really is, is both beautiful and terrible. It’s beautiful because that is a lesson we should be teaching our children. I don’t mean that in the very modern way where we lead children to believe that they’re the best and brightest and most important person in the world. I mean that in a more inclusive way. A way that says that almost no one notices an individual snowflake in a storm, but those individual snowflakes are what make the snowstorm so fantastic.

It’s terrible because those lessons, and rules, that Elsa mentions is one a lot of children grow up with. It’s a lesson I grew up with. Children should be seen and not heard. Children should always be good. Negative emotions can never be shown. Those lessons teach children that there is one way to be a child, one way to be a person, and deviating form that path is disastrous.

See "All Victorian Novels Featuring a Female Protagonist"

That’s not true. Frozen ends by showing that embracing who you are, the negative and the positive, is better than hiding. It teaches that there are secrets and hurts we all have that need to be brought into the light of day. Finally, it shows that recovering from those hurts is a process. It is a process that takes time, and loved ones, as the wound heal.

Forest of Fangorn Frittata

In case it’s been really unclear, I’ve been on a bit of a Lord of the Rings kick. I rewatched the movies recently, and I’m reading the books for a bit of pleasure (and Christian contemplation). Among the many similarities between a hobbit and myself is that we both intensely love food. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that we also share a fondness for breakfast foods.

And on that day, the Fellowship was broken.

In honor of reaching this part in the book, here’s a frittata fit for...well, a lot more than two. But I’m pretty sure Merry and Pippin would polish it off and still have room for tea.

Forest of Fangorn Frittata

Ingredients

1 dozen eggs

1 cup of cheese (sharp cheddar or feta)

2-3 cups of spinach/kale

Salt/Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325/350 F.
2. Grease/spray a 20x20 nonstick pan.
3. Tear up the spinach/kale.
4. Put the nonstick pan on a burner at medium-low heat. Let the spinach/kale wilt a little bit. Season with salt/pepper to taste.
5. While the spinach/kale is wilting, beat the dozen eggs, and more salt and pepper, together until smooth.
6. Add cheese evenly on top of spinach/kale.
7. Pour eggs over cheese. Keep pan on burner until eggs are partially cooked. Stir, gently, as needed.
8. Place pan in the oven. Depending on temperature, and doneness of eggs, leave in the oven for 20-25 min. The top should be lightly browned in places.
9. Remove from oven, allow to cool, enjoy. It can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.
   
   

   

   Doesn't it look delicious? Yes, yes it does, Google Images.

Feel free to tinker with this recipe. If I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I’ll cook some bacon and add it to the frittata, or some cranberries if I want a touch of sweet in with the savory. As long as it’s delicious, and healthy, that’s all that matters.

Self-Disclosure: I'm not doing the paleo or primal dietary lifestyle. I just happen to make a lot of food choices that coincide with whose dietary options.

Why Me? Doubts About an Quest

“Why was I chosen?'

'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.” (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings)

It seems like a normal part of any story is for the hero to doubt themselves. A major part of The Fellowship of the Ring was Frodo, and the other hobbits, doubting their place in the Fellowship. But as they proved themselves over the course of the War of the Rings, those doubts faded away.

In real life, those doubts seem harder to banish. Whenever we are presented with a new quest, doubts arise. Are we good enough? Are we the right person? Those doubts can be healthy. Doubt suggests a degree of insight and self-awareness. It brings to light both our strengths and weaknesses.

But what happens when the doubt is not alleviated? When all that we can focus on is the shadow and not the sun?

"I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with an S maybe, S for silent, S for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame." (Speak)

For instance, I was recently offered a graduate assistantship by my favorite professor. I was elated for a brief instant. However, that instant faded quickly and all of the negative about myself surfaced. I homed in on my tendency to become flustered, on my emotionality, on my youth and inexperience. Those dark clouds made it hard to see the light of being recognized and rewarded for my abilities.

Part of me wanted to retreat. It seemed easier to reject this quest and dwell in the safety of what I knew. I was tempted to say, “I can’t rise to the challenge.”

However, the flipside of doubt is courage. As I wrote this, I thought about how awful I was being to myself. I was ignoring my intelligence, my organizational abilities and my people skills. In thinking about all of the (internal) enemies I had to face, I forgot about all the weapons I possessed. My battles seemed overwhelming because I was ignoring the army at my back.

"Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)

Whenever doubts surface, find a way to make them tangible. Tell them to a friend or write them down. Be as awful as possible. In the shadows of your mind, the things you say seem true and overwhelming. However, when you drag them out into the light and face them, you realize that for every weakness you possess there is a strength you ignore.

Take the Shortcut, It Won't End Badly

“For even the very wise cannot see all ends,” (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring). I am not wise, and I certainly cannot see an end. Which is why I decided to write this blog.

I'm at least this bewildered 90% of the time.

Counseling is about process, not content. Lately, I’ve been so caught up in the content of my life that I haven’t taken the time to process what that content might mean. It’s one thing to walk along a road blindly. It’s an entirely different thing to walk along a road and notice that the trees are turning colors or that you’ve wandered off the beaten path.

So, the point of this blog is to try to pull together the sundry contents of my drawers into something resembling a cohesive whole. It will be a processing of the things I learn in school (such as that I cry at the drop of a hat), the things that interest me (healthy eating, fitness, psychotherapy and religion) and the things that I enjoy doing (running, working out, playing video games, cooking).

Maybe what I am writing is less of a blog and more of a journal. It is quite probable that a lot of what I write should not be broadcast to everyone with a search engine. But one thing I know is that I have rigid boundaries. As I open, so shall I close.

“The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”