I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee. — The Two Towers

My Take – It is imperative that you know when your skills and resources can handle something and when they cannot. If you’re not honest about your limits, odds are that you will either make the problem worse or be overwhelmed by the consequences of your actions.

Something as innocuous as a car needing a little maintenance can become catastrophic if you destroy your main means of transportation. A small home repair can become a money pit as you chase the nest fix for the things you just broke. I have wasted days and hundreds of dollars by being too stubborn to ask and/or pay for help.

Likewise, if confronted by a threat for which you are unprepared, especially when alone, it is almost always better to evade than to try to fight back more than it takes to open an escape route.

I’m not saying that a person should not defend herself, because it is a God given right to do so in the manner that best suits her. What I am saying is that the choice of whether to stand and fight or to flee to safety has to be made depending on the nature of the threat and the tools and skills available. If your abilities and self defense tools are not up to taking on a crowd, then evade as best
you can, if only to change the odds in your favor. To paraphrase Kathy Jackson, the smart cat fights like hell to get away from whatever is threatening it, not to subdue or destroy the big dog that has it cornered for the sake of honor or principle.

It may be best to be a live lion, but being a live jackal is still better than being a dead lion.

There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell! — The Hobbit

My Take – Thorin knew he was dying as he said this, and he finally realized that Bilbo’s love of life’s pleasures did not make him soft or sentimental. Instead, they made him full of life. Thorin’s greed for the treasure under the mountain had made him blind to reason and friendship. He violently rejected Bilbo when the hobbit tried to bring peace between the dwarves and others who were making claims on the treasure. What he did not realize was that Bilbo’s love of life made him fight all the harder to protect and preserve it, even to the point of losing the dwarves as friends and companions. Only at the end did Thorin realize that Bilbo had always been a true friend to him.

In my life, it has sometimes been hard to look at a friend and tell him the things he needs instead of what he wants. It comes back to the ‘hard right versus easy wrong’ argument. It’s better to lose a friend, possibly permanently, than to be less than honest with them or to not do the right thing in order to spare them. If they can eventually see that you willingly risked their approval in order to be a good friend, they may value the friendship even more.

There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest? — The Return of the King

My Take – It’s been 25 years this Halloween since I was last in North Dakota.  I have an image in my mind of what Grand Forks and Minot looked like on that day, and that’s the image I will probably always have.  But the small towns and cities I grew up in are long gone, and so is the boy I was then.  When I do go back, even if my hopes to someday live there again come true, I will come as almost a stranger.  No matter how many of my relatives live there and how many places I can look at and say “I remember this”, I will not be a true native anymore.

Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you! – Sam — The Return of the King

My Take – We can’t take over and solve our friends’ problems, but we can be there to be what they use to hold themselves up.  When you let someone lean on you, you pay back all of the people who have supported you when you needed it.

Many are the strange chances of the world… and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter. ~The Silmarillion

My Take – If you are relying on the strong person to be there to aid or protect you in time of need, you can be assured that the world will fall in on you when you are alone.  You, and you alone, are responsible for you.  No matter your circumstances or beliefs, you have something to contribute, most of all in your own life.  History is full of stories where a small action made by a nameless person turned the course of history on a dime.  The same can happen in a personal history.  The choice of whether or not to do the small things in your life can lead to your ability to deal with the big things that are thrown at you.

There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow. — Fellowship of the Ring

My Take – Somewhere in every person’s personality, no matter their gender, age, or situation, is the trigger that will get them to protect themselves and those that are important to them.  The problem with waiting until that trigger is tripped in the real world is that they may not have the tools and skills necessary to make that urge more than a vain attempt at survival.  Taking the time now to consider the likely things that can happen, be they natural disasters like a tornado or a hurricane, or just a guy in the parking lot with a gun and a hankering for what’s yours, will help you find the lines you will not back over and give you the time to develop your skills, attitudes, and toolsets to deal with them.  It could mean putting together your 72 hour kits.  It could mean getting weapons and training along with the licenses to carry and use them.  Or it could just be looking yourself in the mirror and saying “I am responsible for me and mine, and I will do whatever it takes now to make sure we are OK when the worst happens.”, and then following through.

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. — The Hobbit

My Take – I used to hear “But this is a nice neighborhood!” or “Nobody around here would hurt a fly!”.  Then homes and cars started getting burglarized.  The convenience store up the road got its nickname “Stop-n-Stab” after the third or fourth time it got robbed.

What people are awakening to is that, even though we live in a perfectly nice place, jerks and goblins have cars, and sometimes perfectly nice people just go bonkers and start hurting other people.  Planning to stop being aware of what goes on around you because you’re in a “safe area” is nothing more than sticking your head in the ground.

Likewise, the notion that two oceans protect us from the dragons of the world has been invalid for as long as I can remember.  Policies that boil down to “If we’re nice to everyone, then they’ll be nice to us” are naive, no matter who we deal with.  There are people who just want to watch the world burn, and are more than happy to use us as fuel.  The only good policy toward such ilk is to target and eliminate them as messily and publicly as possible.

‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.  ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’ — Fellowship of the Ring

My Take – When bad things are happening, it is a normal human reaction to look around yourself and say “I wish this wasn’t happening”.  But that is a thought that leads to nowhere.  It is difficult to do sometimes, but taking a rational look at the world, figuring out what the real problems are, and finding ways to either live through them or succeed in spite of them makes life easier in the long run.

A nation that denies that bad people exist in the world and that those bad actors want to cause harm is in denial and will pay for it.

Put another way, the people I know who use up all of their energy dealing with their own drama are the same ones who refuse to find and change the causes of that drama.

Either way, denial may be the only thing more expensive than regret.

The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command. — The Return of the King

My Take – I have absolutely no ambition to power, and I have a visceral suspicion of those who do.  My power extends somewhat under the shadow of my hat, and if you ask my wife, I only control a small percentage of that.   As much as I resent those who try to run my life, I value the right of others to live their own life so long as it doesn’t interfere with mine.

I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. — The Two Towers

My Take – I have to admit, I’m a gadget and gear geek.  And yeah, one of the nice things about going out to Fort Knox is that I get to see machine guns, explosions, and helicopters every few weeks.

But it’s not the hardware and fireworks show that draws me back.  It’s the young men and women who use the training to have a better chance to do their mission and come home safely that gets me out of my nice, climate-controlled bubble to either swelter or freeze in a quest for bruises.  Standing behind those brave souls is the ideal of my country, an ideal that many have either forgotten or never learned.  I know what our nation demands of these people, and what we get in return for their hard work and sacrifice, and that’s what gets me out there.