I'll melt down knowing how obsessed I am about these films and how heart breaking this one's going to be. She approached me at work today with a sincere concern... which I understand and appreciate! I had someone else tell me I shouldn't get so wrapped up in it because it's not "good for me."

Hmmmmmm....

My response was, "So what?" Why should I relegate my energy and life to working every day, paying bills, and continuing the same hoop jumping others demand that I've been doing for the past 15 years!? Is that what's good for me? Avoiding and denying something that gives me so much joy for that?

Yes, I know I'm going to be wasted by this film. I'm going to be so sad and depressed it'll take weeks to get my footing again, but I wouldn't miss this for the world! Life is full of emotions on so many levels and intensities. Why should I only be devastated by divorce, death, or loss of other kinds? I want to embrace this time with this story because of the heart, sacrifice, tragedy, victory, love... all the things that show the BEST of humanity with characters that are NOT perfect... hanging on by a thread and full of doubts and fears... but they carry on and keep taking one step at a time through faith and belief in what they're doing and in each other.

I want Frodo to live in the Shire happily ever after, I want to know the Elves still thrive in their beloved realms of Middle-earth, I want sacrifices to be rewarded with peace and healing... but life isn't always like that... and neither is this story. It has a reality partly because of the sorrow and devotion our heroes experience... and I want to be with them to share the burden, as good friends would do.

Sorry... but I'm getting so foggy waiting that my resource for absorbing these challenges peacefully is running low. Yes... she's still a good friend and understands and respects my feelings now more than before because she realizes I'm not just a frothing movie fan and that there just might be more to this story than she's aware of. She's never read it, and has only seen Fellowship once. It just staggers me how being passionate and absorbed by this causes others to respond to you like your on drugs or have a gambling problem and that you need intervention. You must color outside the lines once in a while! Geez.