Our lives are part of a grand story (The Hobbit)

It was time. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End needed to leave the Shire. but it wasn't his style to slip away unnoticed under cover of darkness. After all, Bilbo was famous in these parts. A quiet departure just wouldn't do. A party was the thing, a celebration of Bilbo's life on the eve of his disappearance. And what better occasion than his 111th birthday? So, invitations sent and accepted, Bilbo hosted the biggest gala ever seen among the simple folk of Hobbition.


There was much to celebrate. After all, it was quite unusual for a hobbit to live such a long and healthy life as Bilbo Baggins had. For some mysterious reason, he hadn't seemed to age a day since turning fifty. Though time had left its unkind mark on everyone else, an unexplained youthful vigor had remained with Bilbo ever since he returned to Hobbition. Perhaps the adventure of his youthful days had brought with it more than mere wealth.


His quest had certainly given Bilbo Baggins a wonderful story to tell, a story he had been writing in his book. Weather many would ever read the book was of little concern to Bilbo. He simply felt the need to put it down so that future generations could know what happened to and through him. Sent off on a grand adventure at the bidding of Gandalf the wizard, Bilbo had acquired a magic ring.

Though he didn't understand it's powers, he knew the ring was of great significance. When worn, it made him invisible, a very useful trick when fighting against giant spiders or freeing jailed warriors. And it would be useful again as Bilbo planned to vanish from the Shire in style. Which he does, literially. At he end of his speech thanking those in attendance and bidding them good-bye, Bilbo Baggins disappears. He slips the magic ring on his finger and simply vanishes. He quite enjoys the trick and the animated talk it inspires.

With fun over and Gandalf present to advise and guide, Bilbo knows that the final pages of his chapter are being turned. After he entrusts the Baggins fortune and magic ring to the keeping of his young nephew Frodo, it's time to leave. He looks forward to the time he might now have to complete his book, a tail that Bilbo hopes will go on "happily ever after to the end of his days." But there's no way to know. Past adventures have taught him that scenes of his life are serving a much bigger story than his could ever express. And while Bilbo may be the star of his tail, he is not it's author.

Once upon a time, we understood our lives to be part of a grand story being written by the divine author of history. But a dark yearning for autonomy and nihilistic nudge from Nietzsche pushed us over the edge of sanity. God, the omniscient playwright, was declared dead. Now no one knows the plot to the epic drama in which we find ourselves, leaving us with competing small stories but no overarching narrative that frames and explains the seemingly random experiences of life.

Let's face it, we all wish we could write the scenes of our own stories. Like Bilbo Baggins, we want them to be read "and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days." but deep down we know that we are not the authors of the events that shape our lives. Bilbo did not seek, and reluctantly accepted, the invitation to adventure that launched his extraordinary tale of risk and reward. As Gandalf expressed to Bilbo in the closing conversation of The Hobbit, his quest had been orchestrated by another for a greater purpose.


Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all of your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all (J.R.R. Tolken, The Hobbit; 303)!



Continued...