Day 360 - The Hobbit

6/12/2020

Growing up, my favorite book in this world was The Hobbit. It took me ‘There and Back Again’ to the land of Middle Earth, through Hobbiton and the Shire, where I met Wizards and dwarves and elves. I fought alongside Bilbo as he battled trolls and goblins and Gollum. I learned about perseverance and loyalty and bravery while helping friends and battling dragons. 

I was able to finish yet another #treadmillmoviemarathons while walking and watching the three Hobbit movies and then finishing the saga with the three Lord of the Rings movie masterpieces tonight. Over the course of the 17 hours and 20 minutes of movies, I walked 53.32 miles, which is just over two marathons.

It was during the Two Towers movie that I heard these wise words from Samwise Gamgee, which really resonates with current events and can give us all hope for a beautiful today and a brighter tomorrow:

‘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.

Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo : What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.’

#WalktoBahiaBlanca

#toddlingaroundtheworld

Total Miles     7020

Completed 3734.2

Remaining 3285.8

Here’s a photo with Austin wearing Hobbit slippers 8 years ago

Here is Austin at a reservoir in Las Vegas