Book of the Month, January 2024 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

It came to my attention that I missed January - and I have the perfect remedy. This entry is dedicated to my next door neighbor, Barbara Pritzkat who passed away in late 2023 after 98 vigorous years on the planet filled with energy and curiosity that inspired us all. She was shocked that I had not read The Hobbit and the last thing she asked me to do before she passed was to read The Hobbit and she gave me a beautiful leather bound , color illustrated version, that I will always cherish.

It was a wonderful read and a great gift of hers to have me read it. Although, I did wonder why she felt is so important that she mentioned multiple times to me to read it. My take is that reading these broad fantasy type novels are wonderful for their creativity and ability to capture our mind- but also because in some ways, it is easier to illustrate key themes of humanity with fictional beings that bear our characteristics. But deep down, I feel like she was sending me a message on how to spend my next decades of my life and that she felt it important for me to pick up some lessons.

While I feel like maybe everyone has read this- if you have not- go for it. It is a fast and fun read -but with some great takeaways in following the path of Bilbo Baggins. My top 7 cool themes that I took away were:

1. Have a sense of adventure- go for it and do new and bold things
2. Loyalty and alliances matters- life can be hard and having being to rely on- and being someone who people can rely to be there for them- is a very important element in life.
3. Strive for more Creativity- some of the problem solving and path finding in this book was truly cool and outside the box- constantly approaching matters with a mission of using your creativity is a cool thing to do.
4. The world is full of danger and evil exists and it is best to confront it head on- sometimes easier with fictional characters than with real ones - but the theme of encountering evil and figuring out how to deal with it runs right through the middle of this book
5. Use your unique skills to help your communities- we all have different skills and this book has numerous cool examples where characters specific skills come in handy to solve sticky problems- and that everyone has something to contribute if we think broadly enough
6. The Value of Being Invisible-one of the magic elements in the book is teh ability under certain conditions to be invisible- reminds me of the quote about the ability to get things done if you don't care who gets the credit - and why doing your thing in a low key way can really clear the path for success.
7. The role of chance- no question in the book- chance plays into the outcomes- there is both good luck and bad luck that are beyond our control but learning how to flow with the vagaries of chance is a key skill

So that was my logical list as I went through the book. But I think that on Page 301 of the book I was reading , I came across what Barbara's message- and the way she lived her life was a shining example of this. It is a passage of Thorin saying farewell to Bilbo - " There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

So, read, or re- read The Hobbit - it is quite good and should help inspire you to live a more Merry Life- a worthy goal!! Grazie Barbara!