The apparent election of Joe Biden as our next president got me to thinking about The Lord of the Rings.
I don't see Biden as evil himself, just corrupted by the forces of darkness, hence his embrace of evils in conflict with Catholic teachings. He reminds me of so many of the characters in The Lord of the Rings who are under the sway of Sauron due to weakness, fear, and dark desires in themselves.
I read the trilogy - along with The Hobbit - back when they were all the rage in the early 1970's. Some of the characters stayed with me, and I even incorporated Tom Bombadil, one of my favorite minor characters, into the "Trunk Story" that I made up and told to my daughters for several years at bedtime. (I was saddened when they did not include him in the Jackson movies.) I later reread The Fellowship of the Ring in the early 90's when a couple of my daughters showed interest in the trilogy.
When I read them all those decades ago, I didn't catch all the brilliant things Tolkien was doing, including the very Catholic subtext to the tale. But with the dark days I fear are ahead, maybe it's time to reread the trilogy to see how they resonate with me now. They may be just the thing I need to give me a greater sense of hope.
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