The World of Grandpa Don

Gandalf Points the Way

I watched the DVD, Lord of the Rings, The Twin Tower. If I had hair, this is how I would picture myself.

Gandalf is also the wizard I would be if there were wizards and I could be one. I would be like him, not so much as for his abilities in the realm of magic and power, but in his knowledge and virtue. He is the good wizard of the story and though the story is set in the mythical Middle Earth with some very unearthly creatures, it depicts the same struggles between good and evil as we have right here and now.

The message is that no matter how hopeless the situation appears to be, the right thing to do is to persevere in honesty, virtue, and the battle against evil. The "Ring" offers a dark temptation to use it's power to overcome evil enemies, but since it is born in evil itself, it would enslave it's user in evil.

Again, there is a message, and that is that the end does not justify the means. You can not say, 'I will be a little less virtuous for a time, until I reach my goal, and then I will change my ways'. There is too much danger in being trapped and enslaved by the very power that you think you can use to your advantage.

There is yet another parallel to the events of today. The dark forces in the story are blindly following their evil master, killing and destroying indiscriminately any thing or person in their way. Genocide is their goal, eliminating anyone who is different than them. It brings to mind those who perpetrated the 9/11 attack and the suicide bombers in the Middle East and elsewhere. This is the essence of evil ... total disregard of anyone different. It is epitomized in the extremes of the suicide murderer but we must be careful that we do not nurture the tendency towards it in our treatment of our fellow man who may look, speak, or worship differently than ourselves.

As in the story, compromise with evil is self defeating.