Why We Fight in anticlimatic

I was there, Gandalf. 25 years ago, I was there. When the strength of men prevailed.

Right around the time I was preparing to graduate high school rumors grew of a shadow in the east. Whispers, of a big-screen Hollywood adaptation of Lord Of The Rings had been circulating. And on some bright spring day that I shall never forget, I spent an hour or so in my childhood home downloading this teaser trailer from Apple Trailers onto the Power Mac 7500 we had in our kitchen. Flanked by my mother, the person in my life who imbued me with a love of Tolkien, we watched for the first time. And then a million times afterwards, until Christmas 2001:

Now I must set the stage, because things that should not have been forgotten…were lost. In 2000 Apple computers had been the laughing stock of the tech world since Microsoft Windows ripped off their OS idea and cemented itself as the default PC platform for business about 10 years prior. My nerdy friends and I had been the laughing stock of the popular kid’s table, because we spent our spare lunch hour time at the library exploring The Net, making Hypercard adventure games, and playing LAN Quake 1 on these ridiculous “loser” devices called “computers.”

So just to recap: If you were into LOTR, the internet, and rec tech products in 2000- you were a social pariah. Things near and dear to your heart were not welcome in public society, at any age- from the cool kids to the old people.

…who, all of them, had no idea that the world was about to get absolutely clocked by the greatest film series of all time.

We knew, though. Any who watched that teaser could see directly through the lines what a potential masterpiece was on the docket. You never know, of course- it is Hollywood- but that whole year of waiting for the fellowship to come out we beat the proverbial table with our fists in unison: go!… go!… go!… go!… And then it did, and somehow exceeded every expectation regardless.

The thrill of victory is a rare one, but one that is singularly exhilarating to the point of permitting someone to die in peace ever after- which is no small thing. And it only has to happen once. You can fight or try and lose or fail, on a seemingly uninterruptable loop for years- but no matter the volume of failure the SINGLE victory over all of that wipes it clean, which makes the pursuit of said victory a much better logical “risk v reward” bargain than initially meets the eye. Especially if you consider that it is essentially eventual, per Murphey’s Law. At some point the tumblers are going to fall into place on that seemingly random key and a blinding light is going to explode in your life.

Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes, really- pressure, and time.

And here’s the other thing- people will support you if you fight, but only if you fight. We might feel compelled to help those who have surrendered out of charity, but it isn’t a natural urge. Because deep down none of us want to surrender, and none of us want to empathize with that. We want to fight on another day, and watching people do just that- even and maybe especially if it seems impossible- is often what gives us the strength to keep trying ourselves- which might, unbeknownst to us, be giving someone else the strength to keep going too. It cannot be understated.