“I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they no longer falter, so it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?”
“Few may do that with honour,” he answered.
I could write an entire essay on this conversation between Éowyn and Aragorn, but this is the exchange that struck me the most last time I read it.
Modern culture gorges on Self. Do what makes you happy! Maintain your personal satisfaction! Concentrate on yourself! Spend your life as you will! The celebration of the individual brings with it a set of advantages, but it also tends to shove out other concepts of self, such as humility and self-sacrifice. By focusing too much on happiness, we forget about honor.
Although self-reflection is an important part of wisdom, but Aragorn’s rebuke reminds Éowyn that humility and honor go hand in hand. It’s an important reminder for all of us. We must keep perspective, not only on how our words and actions will affect other people, but who we are as a family, as the Church, as a country, and as the world.
~Lisa Shafter
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