Simplicity

My favorite book of all time is The Hobbit. One reason: it's one book that I can say I've actually read through about a dozen times from start to finish, sometimes silently to myself and sometimes aloud to students. Second reason: the character of Bilbo. To this hobbit who loves home but decides to pull up some distant aspect of himself and go adventuring, I can definitely relate. Three, the story for me never gets tired. It's Tolkien's talent of writing, especially his craft in the transformation of Bilbo, that makes the story special--not a children's tale at all, but a metaphor of the pragmatic nature of courage and the passing of beauty from the earth that is worth fighting for.

One of my favorite moments in The Hobbit happens near the beginning. Though the night before Bilbo is visited by a rag tag group of dwarves who convince him to join their quest to win back gold stolen from their homeland by a dragon, Bilbo oversleeps the next morning, missing the dwarves early start. By this, Bilbo convinces himself the night's planning session was a dream. He spends the morning cleaning house, but does not clean the mantle where a note from Gandalf, a wizard, admonishes Bilbo to join them by a certain hour with bags packed and ready to leave a few hours down the road.

Since Bilbo never sees the note, the time slips by. Gandalf shows up to bring him to the appointed place where the dwarves await him, but Bilbo has not packed. At that moment, Bilbo makes a choice, essentially between two things: his creature comforts and the adventure of a lifetime (as the cliche goes.) He chooses adventure, running to meet his new companions without even the most essential items. Not even a handkerchief.

When I started compiling my list of items to take to Houston for the transplant, I realized we'd have to rent a trailer in order to fit everything in. The apartment is furnished with everything a girl could need, but I wanted more. My special pots and pans. My special chair. My own towels and bedspreads. It would be like a mini-move to a new house.

That's when I remembered the story of Bilbo. How I admire him for going light on his journey, even though he was kind of forced to do so. Then I looked around my house. Did I really want to take with me all this stuff that I had grown so weary of? I mean, possessions. None of them seem important any more, since cancer. There was so much more to life. My family, for one. Friends. And the peace of a beautiful spring day. Worth fighting for and getting out into.

So, I decided to choose simplicity. To test myself with hobbit resolve. Casting off the things that may be holding me down and keeping me from moving on into a more adventurous space of choices. To be free of things.