I Go 100

If you ever decide to erg (row) for a long time in front of a tv set, I highly recommend The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each movie is quite long, with a lot of action and a good storyline. I've rowed my way through all three episodes, with The Return of the King as my choice for today. It was perfect for my 50 km pain-a-thon (4 1/2 hours of rowing including one bathroom break, 2 hip stretches, a few motivational speeches that I gave myself to keep going, plus some painful groaning thrown in for good measure).

Anyway, back to The Lord of the Rings – As the storyline progresses throughout the three movies, you can see how the characters develop and grow because of their experiences.  Some people might say that actually the layers are stripped away to see the real character within. Either way, it's only in the third episode where Viggo Mortensen finally washes his hair…

If you haven't seen the trilogy, it's a bit of geekfest – a lot of noble bravery and horses (reminds me of my teenage Dungeons and Dragons phase) and people dying to prevent evil from taking over Middle Earth. The main character is a hobbit named Frodo, who is burdened with the task of taking a very powerful ring to be thrown into a volcano, so that evil forces will stop trying to get it (plus a slimy frog-guy). In the first 2 movies I thought Frodo was the hero – but in the last one I realized the true hero was his best friend, Samwise. Samwise never gave up on Frodo, and protected him on their horrendous journey through hell.

We all need a Samwise. Someone who will never give up on us, someone who we can count on when times are tough, and celebrate with us when things turn out right. Someone with a good strong heart who will keep clarity and perspective when things aren't so clear to us.

And we all need to be Samwise.

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