Death and Glory

A friend of mine (you know who you are) recently commented after watching Return of the King that life always feels less consequential after watching that movie. I agreed. Not that I am saying life in general is inconsequential, just that my life does not seem to be working toward such a pinacle of an end. Nothing I ever do will have such globally important and memorable consequences. The world is too vast a place, there are now too many "unsung heroes" to allow that any one person will step up to such great levels of importance.

I've had ideas about how such a problem could be remedied. Perhaps if we still rode horses and fought with swords. Not likely. And after thinking a long time over the history of horses and swords, there really are very few people that have gone down as incredibly important and to be remembered by all. And did those people really save your world? No. Most went down in history for other reasons. I often feel terribly when I am studying history and cannot remember the name of a great king. "What a dreadful thing," I say to myself, "that this king died thinking he had accomplished great things, and yet I can not for the life of me remember his name nor match his name with his deeds."

Then I began to think, how should it end? Could you honestly hope that at the conclusion of that great deed that you could be contented with your life? Or would it really be like Frodo's return? It would be like those times when you wish you could return to your childhood. So you attempt to have fun in the same ways, you attempt to return to that innocence that made the world so wonderful. But you find that it is lost to you forever except in memory. Would it be better to die with the conclusion? Perhaps this is why we always feel a little unsure about endings. Do we like that the hero died? Do we like that he didn't die and life went back to normal? Somehow both alternatives often leave us uncomfortable. Maybe this is part of the reason that the Greatest Generation is also a quiet generation.

But now to the brighter side of the matter. The side that should give us comfort and hope though we may never have a life that is lived to the tune of a moving soundtrack. In the end, Christ will come and we that are believers will have that glorious ending which will usher in, not a time of let down from greatness but bring an eternity of peace and contentment.