Dragon Slaying

Our old house in the southern suburbs of Sydney had a small creek – which we called a “ditch” – that ran along the fence line at the back of our property. The ditch ran behind all the houses in the street until it reached the main road where it disappeared under asphalt and underground. It was possible to follow the ditch north if you were willing to push through scrubby brush and crawl under fences. Wild chokos grew in profusion along the ditch and the avocado shaped fruit was plentiful in season. As a child, it felt incredibly adventurous to explore the ditch, and, in a child’s version of reality, if you were simply following the creek you were really still in the backyard according to rules you thought your Mum would enforce. But, as a child who read The Hobbit multiple times, adventuring along the backyard ditch was akin to Bilbo Baggins crossing the known world to the Lonely Mountain.

I’ve just finished reading The Hobbit for the fourth or fifth time. If you have never read The Hobbit, you must, as the movies are no substitute for the book. The Hobbit is, of course, an allegoric novel. Bilbo, the unlikely hero is everyman (everywoman, every person - insert your own PC interpretation) who walks out of his door one morning (if you’ve read the book you’ll know that Bilbo actually runs out his door in the morning) to embark on a grand quest and, after a series of adventures, surprises both himself and his companions by his courage and fortitude.

There are so many lessons for life in The Hobbit, from the most simple – keep going even if you are scared - to the more ethereal – do what you believe is moral without regard to the behaviour of your others. Even the multiple passages in the story where Bilbo and the dwarves “tighten their belts” and walk for days without food is a lesson for the modern world (and might be one of the best ways to prevent cancer).

Doug and I still have the ingrained habit of going out and doing something if the sun is shining. Yesterday was sunny so we went rock climbing. It was a high gravity day for Doug; every rock climber knows what I mean, but, he battled his way up a scary lead, and I do mean battled, refusing to quit because, as he shouted down to me “you just don’t let yourself quit.” Which is just what Bilbo Baggins said to himself when he entered the tunnel and confronted Smaug the dragon.