We are graced with another beautiful, cold day. Cold by Florida standards. I get to wear a warm sweater and layers. It's a joy to me. I am off to the library. It may seem like an unremarkable day to some, but it is not. No day is just another day - for each day is unique and on its own the only day ever like it. So I try to treat each day like it is a special time to pay attention to. Then, I try to spend it doing things that make me smile.
Going to the library makes me smile. I don't go to check out the books (except the books on sale), but I bring my own book, Beowulf (J.R.R. Tolkien's translation and commentary). I order at the cafe - avocado toast and a rose chai. I sit down and crack open the chunky softcover book and dive into more of Tolkien's commentary on the story of Beowulf. I had read this in school so many years ago, and then read again in college, so I knew the story, but I had not appreciated it much until now.
The addition of Tolkien's commentary is hugely helpful. It has felt like being in a lecture with Professor Tolkien as he explains the history and meaning of a passage. He unwinds the language and the words used. It clarifies the story for me, and the deeper meanings. It is here that we get to see the origin of some of the names he uses in The Lord of the Rings, such as Orc and Grima (as in Wormtongue). It's very much like Tolkien to pull names from Old English. Isn't it fun to find the origin of such things? Or am I a complete nerd?
I shall continue to be a nerd, proudly reading and learning. It won't stop. I sit in the library cafe and every other person around me by themselves was reading a book. Hello fellow reader friends!
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