"Far over the misty mountains cold..."

There are some stories that stick with you forever. Lord of the Rings is one of those for me. I can never divorce myself from anything that Tolkien has written, nor could I want to. His tales of Bilbo and the Ring, of Frodo and the Ring, of all the peoples of Middle-Earth, of each Age, of the Elves, dwarves, Hobbits...all these are as much a part of me now as breathing. Lately, I have been coming back to Lord of the Rings as a place I can take refuge from this world. I do not have my books with me here at school, but I can think about them, I can read the poems and songs online, I can listen to the movie soundtracks.

It is a world I can identify with, where the struggle between good and evil is clearly defined. I cannot understand the vulgarity of this world, especially at a Christian college. Conversations become utterly vulgar and and I sometimes wonder where people actually see the line between amusement and sin. We're all sinful human beings, of course, and I will not place myself above fault. However, it sickens me.

This is one of the reasons I reach for a story like Lord of the Rings. I can read these books and they are clean, they are wholesome. I am satisfied when I read them, because I have improved my mind and my spirit, rather than blotted them with darkness.

So I ask these questions: Whatever happened to wholesome entertainment? Wholesome conversations? Do people even make an effort to be wholesome anymore?

Does all this make any sense? It has been weighing on my heart for a long time now, but I am not good at articulating my personal feelings.

I suppose this post is about two different things, but this Bible verse will tie them both together:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." ~Philippians 4:8 NIV.