Return to Middle Earth
Over the last three weeks I have been to the cinema five times. 726 minutes, of that was watching the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on the BIG screen.
Unsplash image by @davidsonluna
It’s 25 years since Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring was released at the cinema, although technically if being ultra pedantic it WILL be 25 years in December of this year – but hey what’s 10 or 11 months between hobbits?
I saw the originals each year as they were released and I’ve seen them on DVD. My youngest son says I did watch the extended ones with him but I fell asleep. Can’t really remember, it might have been during lockdown and if I wasn’t sleeping, I was possibly on my phone multitasking.
No chance of checking your phone at the cinema, it’s severely frowned upon, and I always get totally immersed in the action. I suppose I could have fallen asleep, but I didn’t.
My son was only a year old when the first film came out. Although he knows the stories inside out, can quote huge reams of the original text and has watched them many times, this was his first experience seeing them on the intended grandest of scales. They stand the test of time. They are totally epic movies in every sense.
Now you may be thinking I went with him. It would have been an excellent trio of mother and son outings. Alas living almost 300 miles apart made it a bit tricky.
He arranged to go with his friends and I could have left him to it, but the more he spoke about it, his enthusiasm excited me too.
I checked my local cinema times and realised I could spare, two Wednesday evenings and a Wednesday afternoon. I booked the same seat for each film and enjoyed all 726 minutes (well maybe not quite that many when you factor in leaving once the credits rolled and a couple of toilet breaks – in Return of the King I tried to miss the bit with the giant spider but totally misjudged it and arrived to see her drooling all over Frodo – yuck!)
It does mean my house is a mess and there are things I’ve left undone but there is an unexpected upside to all of this.
On Saturday it will be my birthday and I usually have a bit of a dip in mood every year before it rolls around. Perhaps it’s just because January is sooooo depressing and February doesn’t get much better. This year I feel in a much better place.
Maybe I have been kinder to myself in other ways too, spending a lot of time reading and doing the things I enjoy. It counteracts all the bad stuff that’s going on in the world just now.
Turning on the news we see Sauron and the forces of evil seemingly gaining the upper hand. His eye turns from one tragedy to another and our attention follows the news cycle of his gaze. Orcs roam the streets on a killing spree – or something like that. Power bewitches and corrupts.
But remember that even little hobbits have a part to play in this story. Take a breather when you need to, be kind to yourself, second breakfasts are a great idea and good fellowship will take you far – however long and arduous the journey!