Wisdom From Lord of the Rings

The skill of the Elves can reforge the sword of Elendil – but only you can wield it.
– Elrond, to Aragorn

It's difficult not to find things that make you stop and think in The Lord of the Rings but this morning that line hit me out of left field. I was fortunate enough to work from home today and when I do I like to put something in the VCR to help break the silence. I had intended to watch the second disk of The Two Tours but what got popped in was the second disk to Fellowship of the Ring and my random button pushing stopped it right on that line. Suddenly I was hit with implications of what Elrond was telling Aragorn, and not just in Professor Tolkien's wonderful world of Middle Earth! Just as that choice was put before Aragorn it is put in front of each and every one of us today. Consider the following: Society can help create opportunities, but they cannot really make us take those opportunities and make something of them. We have to be active. The elves could repair the sword (heck, they made the sword), but they could not fight the battles that were not theirs to fight. Government can allocate all the money it wants and create as many quotas it wants, but unless those qualified take the opportunities granted to them and make something of them it comes to naught. You cannot make people go to college, succeed at studies, take certain jobs, and be successful in life unless they actually have some desire to do so. If you try to force them, or create artifical environments in which they work (that is, make the wrong weapon... not the needed "sword of Elendil", but the "salad fork of Martha Stewart", both useful but not interchangable), they will fail at their task. Not only will they fail, but they will more likely than not screw it up for those coming behind them (after all, if you went into battle who would you want to follow, someone with a sword or someone with a salad fork?). People can do things to help me, social organizations and even occasionally government can help create situations for me, it is up to me (or you in your case) to grab the pommel, to take the sword and use it as it was meant to be used.