Adventures

Later today we're headed for the theater to see The Hobbit. One friend loved it; another walked out. We'll see.

In anticipation of the movie, I reread the book--always a good way to be disappointed by a movie unfortunately. Where The Lord of the Rings is a desperate, do-or-die race to save the world, The Hobbit is an (apparently) unnecessary adventure.

Bilbo Baggins as the story opens is a staid, respectable, and stable resident of the Shire, living in his extremely comfortable Hobbit hole in one of the nicest parts of town. His like Henry Higgins of My Fair Lady, he is well-to-do, "a confirmed old bachelor and likely to remain so," and "lives exactly as he likes and does precisely what he wants."

Bilbo's great desire is to keep his nice life as nice as possible by avoiding, above all things, adventures. "We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures," he tells Gandalf the wizard. "Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them."

Adventures are, above all, unsafe. Bilbo's adventure (sometimes these things just happen) included trolls, goblins, a dragon, and quite a few close calls. And most of us like Bilbo would just as soon think of ways to play it safe, finding our ways into and never leaving nice, safe, comfortable existences.

But as Helen Keller (Helen Keller of all people!) wrote, "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

There's our choice. Since safety is either an anomaly or an illusions, we either kid ourselves into believing in safety anyway or we run out of the house without our pocket handkerchiefs and follow the road to the next adventure.

So what will be your next adventure?