Monday, May 6, 2024
Proverbs and Prophecies
Friday, March 5, 2021
The Sacred Duty of Being Creative
I haven't posted anything here for months. To those who have been paying attention, please accept my sincerest apologies. In fact, I haven't posted anything on this site since June, 2020. According to the stats, however, I think most of you come to this blog because of your interest in The One Ring roleplaying game, which is a good thing or I might not have any visitors at all!
Given that a vast majority of you are J.R.R. Tolkien fans, I try to keep most of my posts related to him in some way. This post will be no different.
Let me begin by asking you a couple of questions. When was the last time you really worked on improving your creativity? Did you know you have a sacred duty to be creative?
A couple of years ago I picked up a book called Caffeine for the Creative Mind by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield. It was during a time that I was re-discovering drawing again after a long absence. I wanted to start my creative juices flowing again and I needed some practical exercises to kickstart the process. The book did not disappoint. Not only was it filled with practical and creative exercises, it was filled with teaching about creativity in general. Very inspirational.
Here is a sample of the kinds of things taught in this book:
- Everyone on the planet is creative.
- The only difference between you and those you think are truly creative is execution.
- Creativity is a muscle.
- Creativity is producing something original which has value to others because it makes them laugh, cry, or think.
I named this Blogger site Advancement Points because my goal is to provide thoughtful content to anyone desiring to improve their life. One sure way of advancing your life is to exercise your creativity. Tolkien believed that we are all sub-creators; that we are a reflection of our Creator.
In his book The Proverbs of Middle-earth (1981), Author David Rowe provides this take on the subject:
"Tolkien’s original hope, to provide a mythology for his beloved but generally legend-free England, was far more than a quest for exciting stories. He believed that the creative process of myth-making is nothing short of a sacred task; that humans have a special responsibility to reflect their Creator by becoming sub-creators. As a result, Tolkien sought to bring into being an internally cohesive sub-creation, credible in every way; having the air of being well-worn and lived in, not fresh from the oven. When sub-creation is successful, the inner consistency of wholly fictional environments is so convincing, so real, that the imagination is enchanted and the reader under the storyteller’s spell. But this ambition (in Tolkien’s estimation, at least) could only be fully realised by the handcrafting of an entire world—from the minutiae of geology and regional flora to the dealings of characters and cultures over the course of millennia. Each intricately detailed leaf on Tolkien’s Tree demonstrates this tireless pursuit of depth and a convincing ‘inner reality.’ The Council of Elrond, for example, begins with an extended history lesson before showcasing a range of cross-cultural disagreements, all packed with authentic-feeling historical and anthropological detail (and not a few proverbs). Likewise, when Pippin corrects King Théoden’s Holbytlan to Hobbits the narrative is not advanced, but the exchange has an underlying etymological integrity that serves to provide (what Tom Shippey calls) the ‘illusion of historical truth.’"
As a result of these beliefs and unwavering dedication to them, we have The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. These are great works of sub-creation.
What sort of beliefs do you have about your own creativity and responsibility to create? What will you create next? Are you willing to work hard at it and dedicate yourself to it?
I will end this post with a final comment about Tolkien. I have read many times that Tolkien struggled to finish The Lord of the Rings, "the new Hobbit." He began writing it in late 1937 and wrote in stages until he finished in 1949. Twelve years is a long time, but he didn't give up. With the encouragement of C.S. Lewis, he kept going. And even after he finished writing, he failed negotiations with Collins to publish it in 1952. Tolkien would have to wait until July 1954 before The Fellowship of the Ring was finally published by Allen & Unwin.
The lesson? Never give up on being a sub-creator and make sure you surround yourself with encouraging friends. You will need them!
Friday, June 5, 2020
Snapdragons!
Enough catching up! Let me get to the point of this particular blog entry. It has to do with a word that Tolkien used in the opening chapter of The Hobbit, and that word is snapdragons.
"They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons...and hang in the twilight all evening!"
Funny thing, for many years I have used the term "Snapdragons!" as an exclamation like one would say the word, "Shoot!" But, I never remembered where I got it from or what it meant...until now.
There's a great book I'd like to recommend to you by Oliver Loo called A Tolkien English Glossary: A Guide to Old Uncommon and Archaic Words Used in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. You can download it on Kindle for free here.
Here is the the definition of snapdragons:
A plant of the scrophulariaceous genus Antirrhinum, esp. A. Majus, an herb long cultivated for its spikes of showy flowers, of various colors, with a corolla that has been supposed to look like the mouth of a dragon.
That sounds like a pretty cool looking plant to me!
Tolkien's attention to geography and flora, especially, has always impressed and intimidated me. I'm no botanist and I feel very uneducated when it comes to the science of geography and ecosystems, etc. When I write, I have to study so much about flora and fauna and recently I found a website to help with this called iNaturalist.org. I highly recommend it to anyone writing adventures for The One Ring or Adventures In Middle-earth roleplaying games and you want to add some interesting descriptions to give your gaming sessions a more authentic Tolkienian feel. If anyone finds a geography site with land and water descriptions, please let me know!
Oh, look here! I found a picture of snapdragons. Beautiful.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
The Terrible Battle of Five Armies
Cover art for The Battle of Five Armies board game published by Ares Games. |
Monday, March 19, 2018
They Stand Tall in Our Dreams
‘Only once before have I seen them from afar in waking life, but I know them and their names, for under them lies Khazad-dûm, the Dwarrowdelf, that is now called the Black Pit, Moria in the Elvish tongue. Yonder stands Barazinbar, the Redhorn, cruel Caradhras; and beyond him are Silvertine and Cloudyhead: Celebdil the White, and Fanuidhol the Grey, that we call Zirakzigil and Bundushathûr.
‘There the Misty Mountains divide, and between their arms lies the deep-shadowed valley which we cannot forget: Azanulbizar, the Dimrill Dale, which the Elves call Nanduhirion.’
—Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Lord of the Rings: One Volume (p. 283). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
Deep into their hearts and minds the Dwarves engraved the images and names of these special peaks, the mountains where their fathers worked in days long past, so much so that Gimli didn’t even need a map, though he had only actually seen these lands once from afar. They did this through the arts of metalwork and stonework, as well as oral tradition.
In our world, remembering is something we no longer work very hard to do. We have technology to do our thinking. Google it. Ask Siri. Ask Alexa. We can retrieve information in seconds. To be honest, it’s annoying at times. Anyone can act like an ‘expert’ after reading a detailed online article. (I’ve been guilty of this myself, so I’m not pointing fingers.) But, how quickly that information disappears from our minds! Heck, I’ve even memorized scripts, maps of locations, and pieces of foreign languages, but now I forget them. I guess they weren’t that important.
Where am I going with all this? We remember the things we love, and we find ways to honor them.
The Dwarves loved their mountains and they stood tall in their dreams. What stands tall in your dreams? Who, what, or where would you never need to ask Siri about? How do you honor those things in your life?
This small portion of The Fellowship of the Ring has reminded me to honor the things I love and to cherish them through the arts. God gave me the desire to draw and write and speak and he has gifted me in those things. Through them, I think I can do more to show honor. So often, I am focused on creating new things or fresh ideas. This has given me a new approach to art: to honor and memorialize what I love and to share them with my family and friends. After all, those will be the remembered things, the mountains that stand tall in our dreams.
Thursday, August 3, 2017
A Good Sermon
Professor J.R.R. Tolkien |
"But as for sermons! They are bad, aren't they! Most of them from any point of view."
Have you ever heard a bad sermon? They're tough to sit through.
Tolkien offers two reasons for the problem of bad sermons, and one comment about what makes a real sermon.
First, he explains that delivering a good sermon requires art, and a bit of virtue and knowledge. His critique is that most preachers lack these things. Ouch! In other words, they bore their listeners with unprepared and ignorant remarks while showing off. When I was young, I once heard someone describe an unskilled preacher like this: "He couldn't preach his way out of a wet paper bag." Tolkien compares the bad preacher with a pretender who sits down at a piano to play, yet doesn't know a thing about the piano or maybe even music for that matter.
- A good sermon requires preparation and training, because it is partly a performance.
"But preaching is complicated by the fact that we expect in it not only a performance, but truth and sincerity, and also at least no word, tone, or note that suggests the possession of vices (such as hypocrisy, vanity) or defects (such as folly, ignorance) in the preacher."
Now, he enters into the personal realm of the preacher. Not only should the message be delivered artfully, but the messenger who delivers it should be a person of Christ-like character (no suggestion of vices or defects).
- A good sermon requires a good messenger, because it is partly a demonstration of truth.
"Real sermons require some special grace which does not transcend art but arrives at it by instinct or 'inspiration'; indeed the Holy Spirit seems sometimes to speak through a human mouth providing art, virtue and insight he does not himself possess: but the occasions are rare."
Art and virtue and insight are still part of the equation of a good sermon, but now enters the Holy Spirit who provides it all the more. This special grace leads to what Tolkien called a "real sermon." In other words, when God speaks through a human mouth, it carries a weight of truth and grace that is felt by all who listen. They know that something special is happening and that God is assisting the performer.
- A real sermon requires a special grace, because it is a timely message from God to the listeners.
- Preparation and training in knowledge and art
- Truth and sincerity from the preacher
- Special grace and help from the Holy Spirit
Friday, October 23, 2015
Diversity Makes Us Complete
com.ple.ment (kŏm′plǝ-mǝnt); noun; Something that completes, makes up a whole, or brings to perfection.
Example: The large beautiful tree still held its full complement of leaves.
Looking at the definition for this word made me think of some other things that have come up recently in my church. We have been studying our fundamental doctrines lately and one of the teachings focused on the church and its mission. The apostle Paul writes in the book of Romans, chapter 12, verses 4 and 5:
4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (English Standard Version)
This basically teaches individual Christians that even though they are unique individuals, performing different functions, they all belong to one another and only together do they make up the full body of Christ—the Church. One member cannot say to another, "I don't need you." Each member is needed to make up the full complement and to bring it to perfection.
The diversity of Saints around the throne of heaven. |
Where there is division and hate, there is brokenness.
Now, think about that in the context of the human race. God has created each human being in His image and in His likeness. Yet, we are all unique persons. I think the greatest picture of God can only be obtained when a diverse group of individuals comes together and learns to appreciate differences. And diversity to me is way more than language and culture (although the Bible gives a great picture of heaven when it says there were individuals "from every tribe and language and people and nation" worshiping God around the throne; see Revelation 5:9). Diversity involves personality, interests, skills, dreams, gender, and color. Think of all the wonderful things we could bring to the table if we would only believe that we belong to one another.
Now, don't misunderstand me. I am not advocating that we should all lay down our beliefs and convictions in the name of unity. I am, after all, unapologetically a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I cannot help it. After some deep and sincere soul searching, Christ saved me and called me into the ministry twenty-eight years ago at the age of fifteen. He is as real to me as everything we see. I talk to Jesus every day and I have dedicated my life to spreading the Good News that there is hope for everyone who calls on the name of Jesus! But, I try to do it in accordance with the Scripture with gentleness and respect.
What I am proposing is that we remember we are all first born of God. There is something to be appreciated in each human being. There is something to respect about the image of God they bear. They may not recognize they bear His image and likeness, and their behaviors may sometimes make it hard to see, but in them are the attributes of their Creator. And our Creator loves us. We should love one another too. It is through His love displayed that people have a chance to respond to God and love Him back.
We, friends, belong to one another. Together we make up the full complement of the human race. One race made up of diverse peoples. To our Creator we are worth more than the stars that shine in the universe. Why can't we see it that way too?