Mood: chatty
Topic: "In the Beginning" (3)
Many days ago, Merry told Frodo that he would have to devote a solid hour every single day in order to give proper service to the words assembled on this very screen. Merry seriously underestimated the need. Frodo now finds himself looking for subject matter, as opposed to his assumed sourcing from multiple decades of experience, in order to give some perspective to the imitation in life of the art that surrounds him. There is a tendency, now, to repeat, not because of a memory loss, but because the point was made so long ago that no one, including Frodo, has the time or the impetus to review it all. One of the Men of Gondor has suggested a "Best of Frodo," which, presumably, would serve the needs of those who look for laughter, alone. Or perhaps those who are predominantly political, or even those who zero in on that which is purely poignant. Frodo disagrees.
Dear reader, it was Forrest Gump, the purest of the pure, who best explained life. When you visit Frodo, expecting him to have made mincemeat of the Incomparable Moron, and find him wandering through the Shire in search of buttercups, or reflecting upon the bizarre circumstances which change unknown lives forever, you experience a cherry covered with chocolate.
There was a time when someone such as Andy Warhol would have painted a picture of a chocolate-covered cherry with the countenance of Marilyn Monroe, or perhaps Frodo, inside, and museums would be awash with reproductions of this that surely would be art. In these days, someone such as Lionel Richie will combine other senses to emulate the tastes of chocolate and cherry. One need merely close one's eyes, and dance to the music.
Art, however, is subject to the whims of those who finance it, or who happen to have the power to limit its' application. Thus are there parables; stories which bear a message assembled with thought and perspective. Parables, when scored to music, can become great films, just as they can become psalms of heavenly praise. Films, music, books, as well as sparsely documented tales, say much, much more about the values of we citizens in Middle Earth as do any of those who profess to speak in our behalf. Sad it is that we keep forgetting that.
Thus Frodo begins each tale with a song. Treat it, dear reader, as if it were a chocolate-covered cherry, and laugh, or cry, think, or not. He who is smallest and weakest seeks only to bring down that which takes the music from us. On the morrow will he ask you to, once again, march with him to destroy the Ring.