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By Kyle Kramer
The Search for Courage
Kyle Kramer
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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.” This passage from J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, has been coming to mind recently as I’ve struggled with discouragement in the face of COVID-19, our polarized and unequal society, and the critical environmental threats facing our beloved earth. Even though I don’t claim to be on the front lines of suffering, I still find myself wishing that “it need not have happened in my time.” And yet it has, and so I have to ask myself: What is mine to do in the time that is given me? If we want to create a better world for future generations, how can we act with courage in our troubled times? By courage, I don’t simply mean bravery, though I certainly admire it. Plenty of Tolkien’s characters are brave, larger-than-life warriors, rushing fearlessly and boldly into battles against impossible odds, hoping, if not for victory, then at least for an end worthy of their ancestors. I admire such heroic bravery, but I find that I can’t relate to it all that well. I don’t consider myself to be especially heroic or brave. I lead a relatively comfortable
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middle-class existence, and I struggle with plenty of fear and anxiety. I have dim hopes for how I would react if I found myself in a situation that required dramatic bravery. In other words, I can relate more to the hobbits of Tolkien’s stories. Until they were pulled into a much larger adventure, Frodo and his fellow hobbits led safe, uneventful lives amid the quiet confines of their homeland, the Shire. They aren’t formidable warriors but small, unimpressive farm folk, used to the predictable rhythms of agriculture but not the vagaries of battle. A TALE OF COURAGE
I don’t think of Tolkien’s hobbits as being brave, but I do think they are courageous. The root of courage is the Latin word cor, meaning “heart,” and although hobbits may be small in stature, they prove to be big of heart. Their courage ends up playing a crucial role in defeating much larger forces of evil and cruelty. Love is the engine of heart-centered courage. Hobbits are grounded in a deep love of the Shire, with its particular hills, valleys, and fields. Out of that love, they come to understand that the welfare of the Shire is inseparable from the fate of all Middle Earth. Even as they stumble through the barren wastes of distant lands and face both danger
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Kyle is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion. He serves as a Catholic climate ambassador for the US Conference of Catholic Bishopssponsored Catholic Climate Covenant and is the author of Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living (Franciscan Media, 2021). He speaks across the country on issues of ecology and spirituality. He and his family spent 15 years as organic farmers and homesteaders in Spencer County, Indiana.
