What I Learned From Hobbits
Some people seem to be unaffected by the Lord of the Rings obsession of the past decade or so. I am not one of those people. I was inducted into the cult-like following after a movie-watching marathon in 2003 that culminated with the premier showing of Return of the King at midnight in December. Not much of a fan before that, I gathered with a group of friends at Walta's house to watch both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers back-to-back in one day, which turned out to be a six hour venture on its own. By the end of The Two Towers I had been caught up in J. R. R. Tolkien's epic storyline and couldn't wait until midnight of the next day to see the finale of Frodo and Gandalf's adventure. I was not disappointed. A large group, mostly from the old Savior's youth group, filed into the movie theater a few minutes before 12a that night with coffee in our blood and expectation in our souls. The movie didn't end until close to 3a, and I don't e