Unbroken Wings

@wearepaladin

getting back into lotr is like. i believe in the power of choosing to do good even when you don’t feel like you’re good. the power of healing instead of hurting even if healing hurts more than hurting. the power of being unable to heal and of finding relief in the unknown. i want to be kinder. i want to be better. i want to be gentle and unburdened again but i have to walk on and on. does any of this have meaning? why of course even if you can’t remember or find the meaning of it in this very instance. it’s okay. you can cry. it’s okay. you did your best. what does it mean to be a good person? i want to believe that i can change and change the course of things even if i’m insignificant in the grand scheme of things. no one is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. i would walk with you to the end of the world and beyond to the next world too and the one after that. don’t leave me behind. i love you. i love you and i must leave you but i will always remember you. i love you. until our roads converge once more, be happy and eat well. thank you for following me to the end, i’ll see you again after the last star falls.

When tyrants and despots vie for power over our land, the only choice that remains to us is to become noble and kind. To become gentle with each other. To protect those who cannot protect themselves and to fiercely fight against oppression.

“Tolstoy teaches us that compassion is of value and enriches our life only when compassion is severe, which is to say when we can perceive everything that is good and bad about a character but are still able to feel that the sum of us as human beings is probably a little more good than awful. In any case, good or bad, it reminds us that life is like a gladiators’ arena for the soul and so we can feel strengthened by those who endure, and feel awe and pity for those who do not.” - Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead