“We have come ill supplied. If we do not find them soon, we shall be of no use to them, except to sit down beside them and show our friendship by starving together.”
“If that is indeed all we can do, then we must do that,” said Aragorn. “Let us go on.”
This passage drives home something that I’ve recently realized is very important to me: the nobility of the lost cause. Gimli makes a practical observation about their situation as they attempt to rescue Merry and Pippin, and Aragorn replies that they are bound by their friendship to do what is right, no matter the consequences.
If I stop buying things made in China and use a water bottle instead of styrofoam cups and vote in national elections and try to avoid eating the meat of tortured chickens, will I really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? Well, probably not. Yet these things are still worth doing. If everyone gives up, nothing will happen. But if someone does something right, even if he never sees the impact of his actions, then the cause might not be so lost after all.
~Lisa Shafter
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