An Epic Journey

I guess I have always wanted to make an epic journey. I don’t think I am alone in this, I suspect it is kind of hard wired into the human psyche. Not many actually undertake one of these journeys, and most of us couldn’t even if we had the opportunity.

 

For me I guess the dream started watching Walt Disney every Sunday night. It was populated with adventurous peoples like the Swiss Family Robinson, The Swamp Fox, Treasure Island and my personal favourite, Daniel Boone. I know that these adventures were romanticized, but at the time I dreamt of walking along side of Daniel through the wilds of Kentucky. In my imagination I traveled the Wild West, fought Indians, sailed to tropical islands and even fanaticised about riding an ostrich. Those were dreams and I live in the real world.

There were a few adventures that I have done in my life, but for the most part I did my travelling and fighting evil in books and on television. The thing about real adventures is that they are rarely enjoyable while you are in the midst of them. You are walking across difficult terrain with a blister the size of an egg on your right heel and every step is painful. Of course it is raining and you are soaking wet and the only dry clothes you have are being saved so that you can sleep in relative comfort. In the morning you pack the dry clothes away carefully and put on your still wet clothes, hoping that they will dry while you are walking.

There is mud and dangerous climbs, river crossings and arguments with your travelling companions. There are moments while you are hiking that will stop you in your tracks by the sheer beauty of what you see. You can actually hear nature and real quiet sometimes, which is quite impossible in the real world. There are spots that are quite possibly heaven and when you do die, you hope to be back there.

Tonight or should I say last night, I didn’t get the blog written because I was on a journey. It’s a journey I have taken many times in the past and will take many times in the future. In the past, I read the words in a book, but tonight I watched Peter Jackson’s vision of the Hobbit. It is and was a wonderful interpretation, but for me, the book is the bible and it shouldn’t be added to or subtracted from. It was a nice journey tonight though and I look forward to the next installment  Between now and then I will reread the Hobbit, just to refresh my memory.

 

You might be wondering why it has taken so long for me to watch the movie. To tell you the truth, I forgot about it until recently. I knew it would be a good movie, but like the Lord of the Rings, it is altered in subtle ways which kind of detracts from my enjoyment of the movie. I think part of what bothers me about the movie is that from now on, this is what people will see instead of creating the Hobbits, Orcs and Dwarves in their own imagination. You should be forced to read the book before you can watch the movie.

Anyways, it was a wonderful journey tonight and I recommend it to any that have yet to watch The Hobbit. However, if you are going to watch it, don’t plan to write a blog the same night or you will have to stay up longer than you planned to.