Like a Hobbit

I have been thinking about this post for quite a while. I will warn you now that it isn't a travelogue and is not rife with pictures. It might even be kind of a downer, but I feel it would be disingenuous to anyone reading to think that all I do is go on adventures, see giant bugs and eat delicious food. As with all things in life, there are ups and downs. 

You may be wondering what I mean by the title, "Like a Hobbit." I don't mean that I am growing out my feet-hair and taking up smoking from a pipe. Before I left to come to Japan, I reread (see: devoured) The Hobbit in a matter of a week. I was sucked in again to the simplicity and clarity that Tolkien writes with in this book. The major point I took with me from this reading was Bilbo's internal struggle with what he sees as his two heritages. On one hand, he is a Baggins, who love to sit and be comfortable and not make a ruckus. On the other hand he is descended from the Tooks, who are prone to adventures and restless. 

It is not my desire to bore you with lineage of Tolkien's created worlds, but these two heritages are referenced again and again at different times. Bilbo follows the Took side when he decides to undertake the adventure, saying that "he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walkingstick." When things got difficult and unpleasant, he finds himself straying to the Baggins side wishing he "was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!"

I have felt that this has accurately illustrates what I have been feeling over the last few weeks. A part of me wants to run out and have adventures, but another part wishes to be home where it is safe and comfortable. I hope my journey isn't fraught with peril, but I wish for comfort all the same. Change is tough. Big change is tougher. Most things that are familiar to me are gone, across the globe and a 15 hour time difference. 

The hopeful message I take from the book is that Bilbo's adventure (just like mine) shaped the rest of his life. If you have read the rest of the books, or seen the movies, you know that it also shaped the world that he lived in. I am hopeful that my journey will hold similar (positive) positive changes for me. I can already see some changes in my life that have been positive in just a short time. 

For tonight, the Baggins side is winning as I listen to the thunder and rain half a world away from friends and family as I think of home and comfort. Tomorrow, I will venture again into an unfamiliar world to seek adventure.