The Took in Each One of Us

As many of you know (or should know), today is the twenty-seventh of April.  All of you Tolkien fans out there should be happy to learn that 27 April is the day on which Gandalf the Grey, accompanied by thirteen hairy (and hungry) Dwarves, showed up at the front door of a plump, lovable, and silly Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins.  That's right, folks: today is the anniversary of that unexpected party at which everything began and the fate of Middle Earth was changed forever. (As is told in J.R.R. Tolkien's children's classic, The Hobbit)

Bilbo was not by any means the adventurous type.  In fact, he came from one of the least adventurous and most respectable families in the Shire.  And yet, despite all that, he couldn't help but feel stirred in his heart at the thought of going far away on a dangerous treasure-hunt.  That was the other part of his lineage speaking, the "Tookish" part.

We all have a little bit of Took inside of us, no matter how deeply buried it might be.  And we certainly need it, because life itself is an adventure that requires stepping out of one's front door and walking whither the Road leads.  At the end of each adventure, we return home changed and (let us hope) matured, and hopefully a little eccentric too, like Mr. Baggins.

To Attain Happiness

Thomas Aquinas says that man’s Supreme Happiness is contained in an act of Contemplation. For by contemplating beauty, life, truth, etc., man comes to know God; and God, being Happiness itself, is man’s Supreme Happiness.

But what does that mean? Contemplation? Is it thinking? Sitting down and thinking really hard about things?

On the contrary. Josef Pieper says that Contemplation is an act of the intellect, by which man orders himself toward a receptive attitude regarding reality. Basically, it is a constant attitude of being open in life to the unexpected manifestations of truth.

There is the attitude of thinking really hard about something, and coming to a knowledge of it that way (ratio), but there is also an attitude of just being open to knowledge when it decides to reveal itself (intellectus). Ratio is necessary, but it is ultimately inadequate, since it relies wholly on man -  who is fallen, and himself inadequate. The entirety of truth is inaccessible to man, but fully known by God. God can reveal truth to man unexpectedly, and with surprising clarity in everyday moments. These revelations are moments of intellectus, in which knowledge is received by man as a free gift. Contemplation is necessary for moments of intellectus.

So, man can come to know truth not only through ratio, but through intellectus. And it is through Contemplation – an attitude of constant receptivity – that man can attain Happiness, which, as Aristotle says, is man’s ultimate goal. 

Welcome to Our World . . .

Middle English

Queen: If we want to take this blog seriously (and we do!), we must begin by pronouncing the title correctly. This will require a bit of schooling - but don't worry, it will be worth it! Oh, and we don't really know what we're talking about, we just like sounding pretentious and knowledgeable.

Knight: However, it is based on a pronunciation guide in an Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer's Caunterbury Tales.

Queen: A neat fact to note, since Canterbury Tales is one of our favorite books! Apparently, when Chaucer was alive every lord or lady knew to pronounce the 'e' at the end of a word. So 'horse' would be pronounced Hawrs-eh. Cool, huh?

Knight: Our title would be pronounced "Theh K-neect ahnd Quayn." ("eh" is pronounced as short e in Modern English, as in bed.  The "gh" in "Knight" has a guttural quality to it, similar to the German ich)

Queen: Remember, we really don't know what we're talking about, no matter what the Knight might lead you to believe. We looked up some random medieval stuff, put it in here as fact, and then just spelled the words phonetically...

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The Knight: T.S. Russell, a warrior for truth, whose weapon is the pen. An emerging poet, prose artist, and epic fairy tale teller, trying to write more and finish his first novel. Expanding the battle into the realm of reading and podcasts by combining the best of both worlds in a Literary Leviathans Podcast, co-hosted by the Queen.

The Queen: Elizabeth Russell, a lady of true breeding and royal interests. A deep thinker, joyfully delving into the vast mysteries of life, literature, religion, relationships, love, and ideas. 1 published novel, another coming out this summer, and a large collection of published short stories and poetry. Embarking on a whole new adventure of helping people read the classics!