To initiate myself into teaching at The Saint Constantine School, I began reading The Lord of the Rings this year... for the first time (I know!). Since then, my thoughts continue to swirl in rambling meditations around two characters: Samwise Gamgee and Lord Denethor.

Sam’s aspirations were simple and pure and good. In the midst of his terrible journey, he and Frodo speculate about how their adventures will be told in tales and songs. Sam settles on “waking up to a morning’s work in the garden. I’m afraid that’s all I’m hoping for all the time.” Sam loves a good tale, but he is not motivated by desire for glory and fanfare. He is on a mission that could likely fail and that no one may ever know about, save the Company of the Ring. What compels him to persevere is love, loyalty, and duty toward his friends and all of the good citizens of Middle-earth. He recognizes that he is a small part in one long tale that has been unfolding since the First Age, and will probably continue well beyond his years.

Denethor, the Lord and Steward of Minas Tirith, is proud and mostly desires power and legacy. When Minas Tirith is sieged and burning and his sons and heirs are all but dead, this hope is lost. Denethor goes mad: “If doom denies this to me, then I will have naught.” He proceeds to burn himself upon a pyre.

Even with the magical seeing-stone, the palantir, Denethor cannot see beyond the bounds of his ego. As he, the Steward of Minas Tirith, looks upon his realm being swallowed by fire and darkness, he can not see beyond the present. He allows despair to lead him, likewise, into fire and darkness.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain, Sam Gamgee, the gardener, hides from evil in the Land of Shadow. As he looks up at the stars, he is smitten by their beauty. Hope fills his heart as he realizes “that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Obviously, Sam is good and Denethor is bad. The contrast between these two characters is profound, and it has led me to reflect inwardly – how many opportunities have I been given to act as “Samwise the Stouthearted” and how many times have I responded, instead, as Denethor?

As spouses, teachers, parents, and children, there is no shortage of failed expectations when we have improper desires, motivations, and vision. On the days when I am mentally “burning it all down” the antidote is always to look beyond – into the heavens, down the street, into the hearts of other human beings of whom I have been granted stewardship. I must have a right understanding of my part in this Great Tale, which requires humility, purity of heart, and seeing the Beauty that is beyond the darkest shadow.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.