What will you choose?

[Child of the 7th Age]

You wake up one morning with a splitting headache. Perhaps your socal engagements the evening before were a bit strenuous! But wait,...something definitely seems unusual. You are in a very strange place that you have never seen before. There is a door to your right and a door to your left, and you are in the middle. Oh, yes, a voice booms out and explains that you have fallen into an interdimensional portal. If you go to the right, you will return to your own universe, all the people and things you know and love. And if you go to the left, you will enter Middle-earth sometime in the middle of the Third Age.

Now this portal has some Rules. If you are a man(or woman), you have to stay a man or woman, ie. no side trips to Aman, no turning into a hobbit, or anything like that. The Master of the Portal, being a kindly sort, however, will allow you to bring along a few close family and/or friends to Middle-earth, since she (you heard me right!) knows you might be quite miserable without such. And this is for real--no going back, no bringing along your computer, etc.

So, do you go right or left? And why do you make that choice? Also, if you choose left, any ideas on where you might want to live? sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Sharia]

I would go to the left, no doubts. I've always wanted to live in a world similar to ME and I don't like where our world is coming to, cloning human babies, it's insane. Well anyway I just like the ide of living in a world with magic and elves and hobbits and all that. I wouldn't miss the computer and stuff like that, just think of all the beautiful things adn places in ME you cuold go to.
I really like the elves so I'd like to live in Lorien or maybe Rivendale but Gondor or Rohan seems like a nice place to live, the ppl there seemed nice.

[Starbreeze]

I will go left, and take with me, Ara, Pip, Mori, Angie and my dad. There, I found that easy to choose.
I would go left because I am fed up with the materialism in this world, and I long to go to a place or time when that is not a problem, when bravery and friendship mean more that going down the hallway in the dark or going for a laugh with some mates, who when you get into trouble down the club, leave you and run away. (Oh no, you've started me off now!) Of course, not everyone is so shallow, but that is what our world is coming to - what with murder and abduction I don't feel safe here anymore.

I would choose those people
a) coz they stick by me when I'm in trouble
b) coz they know and share my passion for ME.
C) coz they know the kind of stuff that would be useful in ME.

[Menewilwarin of Mirkwood]

I'm totally with you on this one Starbreeze, couldn't have put it better myself. I would most definatly go left. Ideally I would love to live in Rivendell or The Shire but as I am a woman, I'll go for Minas Tirith in Gondor. I'd take my absolute bestest friend Daisy Boffin, Angela Greenleaf and my dearest HEX (the imaginary elf who rolls in hay with hobbits - you know who you are...)

[Aroaraniel]

LEFT ALL THE WAY! Now, why would I pass up a chance like that? Well, I'd bring hmmm, my two BFF's and the three friends I've made over the internet: Allison, Michelle and Kat...hmm..I'd live in Buckland, so hopefully I'd be able to meet Merry and Pippin!!! They rock so much!!! I'd bring those ppl because well, they're my friends, and well, I'm sure we'd have a great time!! hehe

[Child of the 7th Age]

I started this thread so just thought you should know I'm definitely packing my bags to go left. There are tons of beautiful things in the world we live in, but just as Sam had a yen for elves, I've got a serious yen for both hobbits and elves. It would also be nice to live in a world where moral decisions seem more clear cut, and nature is respected. I'd pack along my husband and two children, plus my best friend and her daughter. (My youngest daughter who is 9 would be absolutely ecstatic if I announced the family was moving to Middle-earth.) Aroaraniel--It sounds like you and I might end up as neighbors. If humans can get into Buckland, that sounds like a good location. Not too far from the barrowdowns either if you can get across the Old Forest! If there's a problem with humans in Buckland, then I'd opt for Bree. Of course, at some point, I'd like to take a trip to Rivendel, too. sharon,the 7th age hobbit.

[Brimstone Goldenwing]

Thats a very hard question..to stay in our world or Tolkien's? Well, I know that dragons in Tolkien's world are evil..and if I was in Tolkien's world, I would prolly go around trying to make friends with dragons, or try to find them. If I went to Middle Earth, it would be very dangerious for me. Finding dragons is not safe at all, isn't it? Also there is something thats makes me not part with the computer. Sorry guys but I would rather stay in our own world, our own boring world. Video games is everything to me, and I can't part with video games.

Now if I can turn myself into a dragon or elf, that would be a different story. Otherwise I am staying at home.

Hehe i guess I'm the odd one out..

[ April 10, 2002: Message edited by: Brimstone Goldenwing ]

[Nuranar]

My, this is hard. I really don't know what I'd do. If I did stay in this world, it would be because I believe I am here for a purpose. As long as I am here, alive, I have that purpose to fulfill. And yet...I, too, yearn for the simpler world of the Shire. Although in many ways it is still a very dangerous world, it is far slower-paced. I would have more time to devote to what truly matters--my God and my family.

Child, this is an absolutely fascinating thread. I shall have to ponder this further...I hope to come back with more of an answer than this has been. smilies/wink.gif

[Lady_Báin]

hey brimstone you are not alone. I honestly wouldn't go unless I could be an elf and live in rivendell. That insn't to say that i wouldnn't want to go, but humans seem to get a bad rap in M.E. I would take (if i was an elf) my sis. Miriam, Halli, and well i can't think of anyone else that would fully understand that descision. But I do long for the simple life. hmmmm thats a tough one. I would have to think the matter out more clearly. smilies/smile.gif

[Nevtalathiel]

I'm not going left, but I'm sending all the Barrowdowners left and then I'm going to watch and see what goes on. Could be quite interesting to see how everyone does! I do not mean to be cruel, well, maybe just a little! smilies/wink.gif

[Eärendil]

I would definately take the LEFT!! I don´t belong in this world, I´m an Middle-Earthling! smilies/smile.gif Middle-Earth is so much more "me", so I would feel right as home there...

[Rimbaud]

When I first read Child of the Seventh Age's post yesterday, I started to write my normal anarchial essay on why the modern world is an aberration and any return to a simpler more harmonious way of living would be an improvement. But to save you all the rhetoric, I shall simply say... I choose left, for anything is better in a world where the rape of Africa is institutionalised and sanctioned, multinational corporations write governmental policy for profit, and war is the answer to the conundrum of how to be re-elected. See...don't get me going. Left, definitely left. I'll even take the decrease in hygiene standards!

Good thread, Child. smilies/smile.gif

[Sîdhrîs]

Hey, this is a very interesting question!
I'm quite sure that I'd go to ME because I often think I'd fit in there much better. It sounds naive, but when I was a child, my world was alright and I didn't know that the world wasn't as linear as I tgough it would be. When I got older, I realized what's going on around me, and I couldn't understand. I don't even mean wars, as they happen in ME as well. I mean all this capitalism, bureaucracy... OK, you can say that this is normal for a child growing up. But usually, you accept this after a while. I, however, still don't do this, and therefore I think I'd be off before you could count to three.
I'd take with me my parents, my brother and sister, my Granny, my best friend, my cat and another friend of mine who whould be a perfect hobbit, she wouldn't be noticed as human at all smilies/wink.gif

[Brimstone Goldenwing]

hey brimstone you are not alone. I honestly wouldn't go unless I could be an elf and live in rivendell.

It's good to see another who thinks the same smilies/smile.gif smilies/smile.gif smilies/smile.gif

btw if I lived in Middle Earth, I can no longer go to the ol Barrow Downs sitey..er I rather stay smilies/wink.gif

[Arwen Imladris]

I'd probebly go left, to ME. That is a good question, and I guesse I wouldn't really know until I got there. I'd probebly try to go and live in Rivendell or Lothlorien.

[Belin]

Well, this is kind of an unfair question, then, isn't it? .... But (although this may well be something of a wet blanketpost.. just a warning) I'm not sure some of these posters have considered this very closely. ME in the Third Age is a disintegrating world; beautiful bits of culture and nature are disappearing, a great and more or less apocalypic change is clearly approaching, and there's a very serious war that you can't escape no matter where you are. Getting away from cloning?.. You'll still have to deal with Sharkey at the very least. And it seems unlikely that very many of us would be able to work against it in any way; in fact, we'd stand an excellent chance of being randomly skewered by Orcs, depending on where we chose to hang out. And what with all this going on, I myself would be unlikely to travel much. I don't want to get hurt unnecessarily. Taking all of this into consideration, would you still go?

.....I myself do not know what I would do. I would certainly be afraid, I would certainly experience SEVERE culture shock (particularly when I realized I can't speak one word of ANY language that anyone understands!!), and I would certainly miss things like, oh, running water, cd players, easy access to books (Can I bring any books? No? Not even Rilke? Please?). Also, I would have to give up everything I'm doing(what about my degree?) and I would have to leave everybody I know behind me as I'm sure none of them would want to come once I explain all of this.

On the other hand, to be in a place where the world actually feels REAL... wow. Maybe I wouldn't even need Rilke anymore. But it would be a hard, hard choice.

Sorry if I depressed anyone......

I would like to leave my heart
And go walking under the enormous sky
--Rainer Maria Rilke


--Belin Ibaimendi

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: Belin ]

[Kalimac]

Hmm, this is a nasty conundrum, Child smilies/smile.gif. The only thing I can definitely see myself doing is standing between the doors, saying "But..but...but" as I try to tip the balance one way or the other. Middle Earth is a wonderful world and I would love to see it, but moving there permanently would be in a physical and mental sense a lot like taking a surprise one-way trip to the Middle Ages. Now I also love the Middle Ages, but for someone who's grown up in the 20th and 21st century, going there, or to ME, would be a huge and miserable strain. For all we'd like a simpler, non-corporatized world, you have to admit there are some features of this homogenizedworld that it would be VERY difficult to live without after a while; running water for example, refrigerators for another, flush toilets for a third (and if you've ever spent much time without any of these things, believe me, you miss them). Medicine would be another thing; there can't be too many of us who would be thrilled to go off without access to antibiotics or aspirin. And the language! No matter how much you've studied ME and loved it, going there would be like moving to a foreign country whose culture you love, times about a hundred. You might be able to fit in there, but it would take a huge toll on you physically, not being used to the conditions and having to speak their language all the time. You would be making enormous efforts to do stuff that the natives take for granted.

On the other hand...Hobbiton! Bree! Rivendell and Lothlorien! Heck, even Mordor in a weird way. Very, very hard to pass up the chance to see them. I'd have to agree with the previous posters who said that if they did go left, they'd want it to be as Elves. Though being a mortal woman, I'd have to settle for being brought up at Rivendell or something like that. If I could be guaranteed that...to quote Samuel Goldwyn, "I'll give you a definite maybe."

[Birdland]

Before I go leaping to the left, I had to stop and ask myself "...not what Middle-Earth can do for me, but what can I do for Middle Earth?"

Can I ride a horse? (Badly.) Milk a cow? Weave clothing? Hunt for food? Build my own house? Work with iron? Wood? Clay? Can I do anything at all that would enable me to survive in that environment and contribute to that society? Or would I just be wondering around, with no language and no skills for living. I'd pretty much have to rely on the kindness of strangers. And honey, they don't get any stranger than Middle Earth!

But seriously, I believe that I'm here in this time for some purpose, even if I don't know what that purpose is. For whatever reason, the 20th and 21st centuries are what I have been given (or chose), and I should play with the hand I've been dealt.

And if I'm unhappy or stressed or worried sometimes; well, hey, so were plenty of other people in M-E. Adventures are fun to read about, not always so fun to deal with. And as in our own world, most people were not Elf Lords and kings in the making, but "just folk", who had to live as best they could, no matter what the times might be like.

While M-E might be a great place to visit, I'm never going to live there. So Birdie turns sadly to the right...

Are you sure I just can't take a little peak?

[ April 12, 2002: Message edited by: Birdland ]

[KingCarlton]

I agree with the bird on most counts.
Maybe a vacation, a little escapism...it is impossible to want to live there.
Right here on our dimension we can get that escapism from the movies, got to stick around to see TTT and ROTK.. smilies/biggrin.gif

On the other hand, if I had nothing to live for here..then I would take to the left.
With me would be my wife and daughter.


...how is it that you milk a cow?

Know peace

smilies/smile.gif smilies/frown.gif smilies/confused.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

Birdland-Shades of JFK!! That was a great and thoughtful post but I'm still going left. Look, I figure I've got to have some marketable skills: I'm a pretty good cook, housekeeper, gardener, raiser of animals, and teacher of young children. The skills connected with being a mother may actually be more transferable than some other more glamorous professions. I don't expect to be a great lady. I grew up in a working class area of Detroit; My dad was a factory worker so the Sam Gamgee model or the human variant thereof would work just fine. I never lost those roots despite my education. I pick up languages quickly when I have to-- in my graduate program in medieval history, I had to have Latin, Dutch, English, German, and French so one more certainly won't hurt. And the most glorious stretch of time I ever had was, many years ago, living in a farm in rural Ireland with a peat-burning stove, an outside loo, a pump for water, and no electricity. (I kid you not.) Our job was to take care of sick cows and get some very strange medicine into their mouth and down their stomachs. Now, if I can do that, I can survive Middle-earth!

The more serious question is whether I've been placed in this age for a reason and, therefore, shouldn't bail out of it. However, if and when such a mysterious portal comes crashing into my bedroom, I can only assume that someone upstairs may want me to consider a change of venue, or else why would the portal be there?

Ahem, ahem, despite the last poster who shall go unnamed, I have plenty of things to live for here, but, gosh, wouldn't it be sad to lay on your deathbed and know you had passed up such an extraordinary opportunity. I'm older than a lot of posters here so I know life is very short. Despite the hardships and uncertainty,I just couldn't resist! sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Nevtalathiel]

Milking a cow is kind of obvious and easily picked up. Pull down and squeeze, that's all you need to know.

Before you choose ME, perhaps you should consider, not only the impact it would have on you, but also the impact you would have on it. Having seen all the technology, medicine and advances of our civilisation, could you honestly say you would never be tempted to reproduce these things on ME to make your life a little more comfortable and like the world you had left. Such meddling could change ME forever, so that in the end, you'd have ruined the world you wanted to see.

[KingCarlton]

Please don't leave me un-named... waaah !

Ahem..what I mean is I am not ready for a one way trip to fantasy land, being accustomed to this way of life and all.

I wouldn't ask you for your age, Child of the 7th Age ! But I will have you know that I am of nine and a score years and My wife Sharona and my little daughter is what I life for, cherishing every moment of this short precious life with them.

This is a good topic for discussion and if I have offended you earlier, it was unintentional.

Know Peace !
smilies/smile.gif smilies/biggrin.gif smilies/smile.gif

[Niphredil Baggins]

A woman's lot in Middle-Earth the way tolkien saw it is not an easy one, and what with this many of us going there I don't think we would get treated like royalty. Knowing the future until the end of third age would be an useful bit, except that our presence might change it. Our? I was assuming we all would go together. But maybe I would go alone. I would not bring my friends and family, ME is a dangerous place. One big trouble: I don't speak Westron! Would have to make do with my poor Elvish.
All in all, an adventure. I would seek the elves till I found them. A beggar beside their path, crooning the hymn of Elbereth in her harsh voice...

[Birdland]

However, if and when such a mysterious portal comes crashing into my bedroom, I can only assume that someone upstairs may want me to consider a change of venue, or else why would the portal be there?
Well, that does put a whole new spin on things, doesn't it?...

(CRASH!)

"BIRDIE!"

"huh...wha...hey, where's my roof?"

"YOU ARE TO GO TO MIDDLE EARTH NOW, BIRDIE."

"What? Right now?"

"WELL, YES, I CAN GIVE YOU A FEW MINUTES, BUT NOW'S AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY."

"But where should I go? What will I do?"

"THE ONE WILL PROVIDE..."

Oh, yeah, as good as you 'provided' for me here? I haven't forgotten those times in Echo Park, ya know."

"GO!!!!!"

"OK, OK! Geez...What should I take?"

"JUST WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES."

(Birdie goes flying through the portal, without a handkerchief.)

[The Half-Hobbit]

Heehee, that's funny...
I would go. I'd probably be killed, or starve in the woods, but i would go. If I didn't, I'd regret it for the rest of my life.

[Child of the 7th Age]

KingCarlton--Very sorry about un-naming you. My apologies. I get that way when I'm blowing off steam which I frequently do in these posts! Oh, by the way, I am definitely your senior. Let's put it this way. I'm about the same age as Frodo(the book one-- not the extra cute, young movie one)when he opted to go on to the West.

Birdland--I cracked up at your post. I'm still holding my sides laughing. Have to go to my daughter's piano recital and hope I don't remember your post and begin giggling again which could be quite embarassing.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[dragongirlG]

Yikes! A hard question and choice. Now, first instinct would tell most, if not all, of us to choose ME. However, God (or Eru, if you want to get Tolkien-ish) placed us here on this Earth for a reason - to be a friend to someone, to teach lessons to others, to be a mother, daughter, sister (or father, son, brother), to be an in-law, a niece, and have other relationships that I just can't think of right now. If one was to go, that would mean losing or not fulfilling his/her purpose on this Earth and in this life, even if he/she hates the materialism, cloning, bad ethics and morale in the world. If he/she stays in this world, he/she might have a chance to change the things he/she hates about the world. If one chose ME, though, then the bad things of the world would simply get worse and worse, and he/she missed the chance to change them. I know that one wouldn't ever have to go back to Earth, and stay in Middle Earth until one dies. But the chance that slipped from you to change the world of your past when you entered Middle Earth will probably haunt you. I know that you'd regret it deeply if you didn't enter ME, but think of what purpose could you have there. You were not made for Middle Earth, you were made for this world and this life. Being in Middle Earth would be like being an extra, sudden addition to it, unexpected and un-needed. Of course most people here would WANT to go to ME...but are they needed there? I think not.

I would deeply regret missing the chance to never go to Middle Earth, to see the land of my dreams and fantasies, but deep down, behind all the regret, I would know that I made the right decision and feel glad, for I was made for this world and this life, not for Middle Earth, not to change the context of its history, and not to change its future.

[Araen]

I'd go..... I think. I don't know what I would bring but I wouldn't bring my family becuase they wouldn't be happy there. The only problem is what would they think happened to me? Still I would most likely go. smilies/smile.gif

[Ibun_Clawarrow]

As intriging as the idea of going to ME sounds intially, I'd have to pass. The Third Age appears to have been a time of as much turmoil as our own, albiet for different reasons. And I must say, I'm rather fond of modern sanitation! That and the fact that I'm not to sure how well a non-white person might fit in Tolkien's conception of Middle Earth...

[Niere-Teleliniel]

I'd go left. Sometimes I just get so sick of this world I could puke :-X. I wouldn't mind that ME would be harder in some respects, cause it's the kind of place I've always dreamed about. I'd take my mom & dad, + my two older brothers & little sister (I'm a family person). I may take Elf-herself and Airetalathwen too, just cause they'd be mad if I left for ME and didn't take them smilies/smile.gif. We would probably settle in Bree someplace.

[Alchrivëwen]

I would go left, I would take my wooden flute and a book then leave everything else here, It would be harder for me to go with friends

[ESTEN]

I would have to left. This world has been boring me for the past few years and a big change would be good. As for who I would bring with me, that would have to be my friend chris. As for what I would bring, it would be my favorite pipe. I am sure that I could get a hold of some of the halfings leaf. I would love to sit in a field in the shire and smoke under a big tree, and even go out for an adventure every now and then smilies/wink.gif

[Ajram]

Left. Anydaynow. smilies/biggrin.gif

[Nevtalathiel]

Child of the 7th Age, you should just convince someone to make a film about you and you'll be 20 again before you kbnow it!

[Enedhil]

I thought this would be an easy one, but no.

I love a lot of the people in my life dearly. It would pain me to be parted from them...is this forever, by the way?...
Right takes me home, with all the good and bad. Left takes me to a new facinating place...with all the good and bad.

You know, for all the badness in ME, I would feel quite comfortable there, if I took my nearest and dearest. And no abuse - hurrah! And ooh, I could grow my herbs that I want to do. Oh, and camp amongst the trees, and ride across the country.

Right. If I take mum and dad, my closest friends, N, D, R & A. oh and imp and squizz and dearest jigs. My sister will come of her own desire, I think (I hope) so maybe we could split the family load that way...

Can i take my favorite peasant blouses?
I promise to leave my mobile behind smilies/biggrin.gif
ooh, but i'm taking humbugs....

[Enedhil]

*Shrieks*


No CDS!!!! Not the important issue here mind, it's more like - no howard shore or hans zimmer or danny elfman or john williams or michael nyman or james horner....! smilies/eek.gif

damn.

*shrugs* never mind. sacrifices are sacrifices and hey - we have shire music and Elven song.

[BoromirTheBold]

Well, I have to say that I will go left. And during the third age, you say??

Hmmm..... I'll have to make a special trip to the 'Pony to meet up with some certain hobbits and one certain Ranger.....

I don't know that I'd take anyone with me, except my Very best friend, Shawn(Yeah, *that* kind of friend...) Though, then all my choices would seem as Frodo's at Parth Galen. Maybe Gondor/Rohan would be a more fitting place to go for both of us... We wouldn't be missing much....

Well, actually, it'd be Rohan. I cannot live without riding horses. I'd practically live on one there. So?? I'm a girl you say?? I'll make that not matter.

Well, now you're gonna have me expecting something like this to happen... and it's gonna drive me nuts!

Oh well... it IS a good thought question...

I will see you in ME!

[Nevfeniel]

If you go to the right, you will return to your own universe, all the people and things you know and love. And if you go to the left, you will enter Middle-earth sometime in the middle of the Third Age.
Hehe, sounds like the Matrix bluepill/redpill thing. I'd go left. I wanna see if elves really have pointed ears, and I just wanna see elves.

[Neferchoirwen]

Hehe, sounds like the Matrix bluepill/redpill thing.

I was thinking just that...

I'd go left. I know that it would be a rare chance to have to have the choice between your own world and ME. The chance itself would be so rare, that I would honestly think that the choice was made for me, and for me alone.

I would take the left door because the two doors would seem like a destiny in disguise. If I had a choice to go to ME, I believe that it would be for a purpose, and I was chosen for it. I know I can live in ME. I have enough of this world in my experience. The fact that it's actually in the 3rd age, I know that I'm into something---not as an observer of the radical changes, but as a participant of those changes. I was given a choice. Therefore, I have a calling.

Child, you woke me up in this post. I hope I made sense, but it really really was a double expresso or me. smilies/biggrin.gif smilies/smile.gif

[Neferchoirwen]

btw...

Belin, if I'd bring a book with me, it would be Rilke--I only have his Book of Hours ( I will be book shopping on Rilke tomorrow---I hope)

And with regards to living on ME, I'd love to teach side by side with Child. (I'm an education major) It's a great thing to do.

I don't WHO to bring just yet... Elijah Wood, maybe. smilies/smile.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

And with regards to living on ME, I'd love to teach side by side with Child...It's a great thing to do.

Sounds good! How do you feel about teaching hobbit children? And let's do a good job--not make them hate the stuff that's really great, but too many teachers seem to take the heart out of it. Let's see. We'd want to teach them the heritage of the Red Book, how to read Westron, some basic math they'd need to tend their farms and families. Also, stuff relating to their own Shire and families--maybe let them tell us about their family histories and, of course, local flora and fauna. And we'll have days for Elf Appreciation, Ent Appreciation, etc. Sounds like it could be fun.

[NyteSky]

i had a dream a lot like that. very realistic. i chose to go to the other world. and it wasn't even ME. How did Sam put it? "i would dearly love to see elves" something like that. and i'd take whatever friends that would be willing to go. a certain elf and hobbit come to mind...

[Auriel Haevasawen]

I would go to ME. I would be a traveller, a little like a female ranger (I was a forest warden once it was the best job I ever had but I never carried a bow or sword and had to pick up other people's rubbish). I would drink in the Prancing Pony, ride to Rivendell and spend time conversing with the elves, sit on the grass outside Bag End and listen to Sam, Bilbo and Frodo, I would explore Mirkwood and learn archery from Legolas and I would spend the winter with my good friends Faramir and Eowyn in the White city. As you can see I have spent many years considering this very question. I would take no person with me but I'd need to wear my silver rings and stuff because they are a part of me.
Sorry if anyone reading this is now a little spooked. I am quite normal, I'm just a dreamer.

[Neferchoirwen]

About teaching, I was watching Oprah this morning, and her show had something to do with education. He guest says that each child has a different wiring on his or her brain, and that it is cruel to kick kids out of school just because their brains work different from the others.

When you said something about not making the kids hate the great stuff, I remembered what I just watched.

Yeah, teaching hobbit children would be great. My post about destiny now makes me believe that if ever there WAS a portal leading to ME with my choice whether or not I would go, I believe that my destiny to ME would be to educate the future of ME!

Sounds exciting, Child. I hope a portal would appear in my room tonight...

smilies/wink.gif smilies/wink.gif smilies/biggrin.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

...each kid has a different wiring on his or her brain, and it is cruel to kick kids out of school just because their wiring is different...

I can certainly identify with what you're saying. I have a daughter who is extremely talented in things like gymnastics and piano and has a loving pesonality, but she finds language a challenge. She is the exact opposite of me--I love and feel comfortable with words but am physially and visually inept. We had her tested and found out she has an "auditory processing disorder." We had to search and search for the right school to make sure she would get the education she needed and also feel good about herself and learning. Fortunately, we found such a school and she's very happy.

She is also left-handed and quite creative. She is the one other person in our family besides myself who seems to have an absolute radar and understanding for hobbits, elves, and Middle-earth. (I know she would go left through the portal!) So, children who aren't strong in one area can be very gifted in another.

Yes, it would be challenging and fun to be a teacher in a place like Middle-earth. You'd have to be very careful to respect their culture and not try and remake them into something they're not (turning hobbits into elves or some such nonsense which could be a real temptation.) Anyways, if you see any stray portals, let me know. sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Primula Gamgee]

I would go left. And for only one reason. ADVENTURE. I want to go on an adventure and help people and be someone. In Middle-Earth it seems that you can do that. On Earth you'll end up in the middle of nowhere in TX with no adventure at all. In middle-earth everything and every place you go you meet elves, dwarves etc. so, left it is for me. how bout u guys?

[Primula Gamgee]

May it be an evening star shines down upon you?
May it be when darkness falls your heart will be true?
You walk a lonely walk
Oh how far you are from home
May it be the shadow's call will fly away?
May it be a journey on to light the day?
When the night is all gone
You may rise to find the sun

[Neferchoirwen]

hey Child! You teach kids? I've got an aunt and cousins living there, and she teaches, too. Was just hoping that maybe you might have met her. I'll try to remember where she teaches...

[Neferchoirwen]

hey Child! You teach kids? I've got an aunt and cousins living there, and she teaches, too. Was just hoping that maybe you might have met her. I'll try to remember where she teaches...

[Olo Gamwich]

I would sit in the interdemensional portal...waiting and thinking, throwing a tennis ball up against the wall...waiting and thinking. And once I've made up my mind which door to go in I will go in the opposite door of the one I chose, for sitting and waiting in the room forever will have messed up my mind to the point where I will make a stupid decision.
smilies/eek.gif

[Aosama, the Wandering Star]

Not even hard at all! I've been spending every spare waking moment since I read LOTR thinking about ME, imagining myself there. So now, I'll never give up a chance to actually go there!!!
I'd have to take along my older sister, even though she is annoyed by me (a lot), because she would want to go on adventures with me. Which is what I would do.
I'd probably go to the Shire first, then work my way to Bree, Rivendell, the Misty Mountains, Rohan, Gondor, to Ithilien. No Mordor for me! (unless, o'course, I had to destroy an evil ring...)

[Neferchoirwen]

Olo, I think I know what you mean...I've done something similar---but I was still in high school then. Nevertheless, I know what you mean.
smilies/smile.gif

[TheWindsorStar]

Now this is actually pretty hard. For one, if I went to the left, I'd be leaving behind a lot of things. Also, ME isn't exactly the safest place. But neither is our world. And let's just assume you'd be able to speak the language.

I'd go to the left for these reasons:

1. Obviously, I'd want to live in ME
2. It wouldn't be hard for me to pick which people I'd bring with me
3. Staying as a human wouldn't be an issue
4. It's much nicer there, and much less polluted
5. The gender thing wouldn't be an issue. I'm not big on real political correctness, nor am I much of a feminest. Tolkien didn't really write his females as being less superior to men anyway.
6. Even if there was a chance of me being killed, I'd go. It'd be better than turning down such a chance. smilies/biggrin.gif

[Enedhil]

Windsor, I agree with you - like I always say, bring back the horse and cart! much less pollution!!

And as for being killed - rather it were by a sword or arrow than living in fear of a nuclear war, or any war with the weapons we have these days.

Staying a human no problem, perhaps I could work in the gardens or in the house of healing. whilst writing music and poetry in my spare time, God this life sounds too good to be true....

..oh wait, it is too good to be true... smilies/frown.gif

[ April 26, 2002: Message edited by: Enedhil ]

[Child of the 7th Age]

This was a fun question, and I thought I'd pull it up again, since we have a number of new posters.

By the way, I'm still going left! Only now, I'll have to make sure some of my friends from the Downs are with me as well as my family and closest friends here! Actually, the ones from the Downs would be the most helpful since they know something about the world we'd be visiting.

I'd have to give my husband a crash course in LotR, although he has seen the movie twice (because his wife insisted).

sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[*Varda*]

Well, when I first read the question, I thought LEFT! without a doubt!

But then I sat and thought about it some more. Think about what you'd be giving up. Sure, this world is a crappy place in many ways. But even so - you'd be leaving many people you loved behind, you'd never see them again. It would be a major culture shock and who's to say you would actually fit in when you got there. How long could you realistically survive without proper sanitation, computers, tv etc. I know many say 'hey, that'd be easy!'. It could be different once you were there. You'd always be wondering what was going on in this world. You'd never know what happened to your family and friends that didn't come with you. And add to that Middle Earth was slowly fading away...the elves were fast disappearing.

But if you didn't go...you would be forever wondering what would have happened, what could have been. All those what if's. What would life have been like. You could have left this shallow material world and been in a far more beautiful world where appearances didn't seem to matter so much. You could have been a part of that history.

So, after all that, I still don't know. If I could be an elf (therefore being able to go to Aman, live forever etc.) and if I could take all my family and all my friends - I would go left. But what if you couldn't place conditions? I think I would stay here. But then I'd always feel regretful.

But as was previously said, if a portal just opened up, I would think it must have done for a reason. There would be some reason I should go to Middle Earth. But if my friends and family didn't want to come - I don't know if I could go alone and leave my whole life behind me.

[ June 30, 2003: Message edited by: *Varda* ]

[Artilien]

Good question...
I wouldn't go left. not that i dont want to go to middle earth - i would love to. but not to live there. i cant use weapon, i cant do anything that would help me survive in ME. And I wouldn't like to go to ME alone. if I would go, I would ask only a few people to go with me. but I can't just take my friends away from this world and away from their friends and family. so i would go right.

[The-Elf-Herself]

As much as I like ME, I wouldn't be able to go there permanently. This would entail me leaving behind three cockatiels, two basset hounds, and a mouse who are my responsibility(and whom I love very much). Furthermore, I also happen to enjoy certain modern conviences, including sanitation, computers, CDs, etc. Maybe I could give these up, but for what? Realistically, I would be out there alone, with limited training in swordmanship(fencing anyone?). I wouldn't be able to pursue the occupation I wished(veterinarians in ME? I don't think so). If I'm not mistaken, women did not have the job/life opportunities in ME that they have today. In addition, I am very close to my family, yet I wouldn't be able to take them with me; I know that they would be miserable in such conditions. Hmmm. Maybe I could take a vacation in ME? As an elf from the Grey Havens. smilies/wink.gif

[Rimbaud]

You give yourself no credit for your inherent adaptability. Additionally, you assume that entry into ME would necessitate skill in combat. The majority of the inhabitants of ME lived in relative peace. A very small percentage of the total population went on quests to destroy Rings or overthrow evil angels. As Child postulated earlier...if you can survive rural environs on this planet (which I have little doubt you could) then you could survive a faux-medieval existence in ME.

This is not to deny that prior experience of handling a sword or more likely a hoe, or a plough, would be useful, but such things can be learned. The human being is an peculiarly adaptable tool.

[Raefindel]

Boy I avoided this question when it was origionally posted. I just couldn't decide.

To be honest with you I don't think I'd go to ME. At least not in my current circumstances. I don't think my kids could handle going there. At least, one would have trouble with it, anyway.

And I don't think Eru would give me the choice in these circumstances. If I were to loose my family (God forbid) I can see the offer being made.

In THOSE circumstances; ABSOLUTELY! I'd go. And I'd bring my Mother-in-law with me! I'd love to see that woman try to do dishes & laundry without hot running water! HAHAHA! She can't hang a picture without help! HAHAHA! smilies/evil.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

Let's give this a try again and see what some of the new folk think.

smilies/biggrin.gif

sharon

[ June 30, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[Darby]

Oh, this would be a hard one. The thing is, I couldn't leave Earth without my family. But I couldn't go ripping my husband and children out of their world without their permission, either.
So, my response to the voice would have to be, "I need to discuss it with my husband."
Well, the story would probably end right there, but let's assume my husband suddenly appears in the portal beside me.
Knowing him, he'd have some questions for the voice.
1. Where and when precisely will we be appearing in Middle Earth? The third age was very long, and we don't want to live in say, the Southlands.
2. What will be our means of support?
3. How will we earn a living?
4. What about medical care?
5. Can we speak the language?
6. Will we be able to read the writing?
7. What will our position in society be?
A quote from my husband, "I am not so unhappy with the comforts of my life here, that I would give them up for the dubious pleasure of being a swineherd in the Southlands of Middle Earth, shortly fated to become a miserable refugee or impressed into the armies of darkness."
I think I agree with him. I'd be really really sorry to miss out on the chance to see Middle Earth, but I can't risk the lives of my family.

My fantasy? That I'd get to escape there all by myself for a limited period of time, and when I came back not a minute would have passed here and I wouldn't have aged at all. (Like visiting Narnia.)
My other fantasy? To be able to step into the mind and body of a particular character and play through the book like it was really happening. I'd probably pick Merry or Pippen, though I waffle on which one I'd rather follow through the books.

[Olorin]

I would go left in a heartbeat. I just wish I could become one of the elves. I would probably live in Rivendell because it's so beautiful and they allow men. However, if for some reason, like I couldn't find Rivendell, I would probably live in Bree. It just seems nice there.

[Amanfalath]

I'll go to the left for here isn't much loved in this life.I have suffered much and if I had such chance,I would never go back.
And would take my Mellon,Jeff with... if he would follow me.Aphado nin(follow me) towards Lothlorien,Caras Galadhon... smilies/smile.gif

[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

Thank you Child of the 7th Age for bringing your thread back from the dead. (no more rhyming for me)

Well, my decision would be completely without regret. I know which world I belong in. I know that there are plenty of opportunities waiting for me around the corner and so much to see and do and know and hear and smell and taste and feel. Which is why I would choose right. I would think back on my decision and I would feel warm inside and smile.

I could not leave this life, no matter how great Middle-earth is. There are plenty of things I would like to do there, like visit Tom Bombadil and question his enigmatic brains out. Or to try the beer there or go on numerous adventures into mountains or caves. Not to mention relaxing in the Shire and other peaceful places and visiting Ithilien. But is it worth it to permenantly leave your life? There are to many people I know in my life that I could not leave. There is so much to do in this world. I could not bring everyone I wanted to ME and even if I were allowed to, who's to say they would come? And I think it's just plain selfish to make people choose to leave the life they love permenantly just to make you happy.

I could not do without the music we have in this world. I could not do without the places I love to go. And there are so many more people yet to meet. I don't think of not choosing to go to ME as a missed chance and something to regret, I think of not living the rest of my life in this world as something to regret and a missed chance.

I don't know whether I believe we are put in this world for a purpose. I don't like the idea of destiny or purposes either, so I like to think that we are born to live our lives freely and it is me who shapes, plans, and lives my life and that it is becuase of my decisions and choices that my life ends the way it will. So, I don't believe that if the door to ME is there it is there for a reason and that we have to (or should) choose it. Why not just think of this choice as a challenge or a test by some greater form of life and that we are asked to continue to live in our world for a purpose? And then would you choose to stay?

On Earth you'll end up in the middle of nowhere in TX with no adventure at all. In middle-earth everything and every place you go you meet elves, dwarves etc.

What's the difference? You are "in the middle of nowhere in TX with no adventure at all" because you choose to be. You would leave that life all behind, permenantly, in an instant, where you can go seek adventure in ME, but in reality, you refuse to leave it all behind, permenantly, and go seek adventure in this world? That's madness! If people are so needy of adventure why don't they go and seek it? Because they don't want to leave behind their life with their family and friends? Then why would the choose to go to ME? They would leave their life then. At least in this world, you can always come back.

And who's to say you would meet dwarves and elves at every place you go? You might end up in Bree stuck farming for a living saying "I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere in Eriador with no adventure at all."

for here isn't much loved in this life.I have suffered much and if I had such chance,I would never go back.

Amanfalath, can you honestly say you would not regret permenantly leaving this life? If you have suffered, time can always heal suffering. And who's to say you won't suffer in ME? Everyone must suffer in life. Suffering is a part of life but it is not the only thing. There is much you can look forward to in this life.

Your decision is up to you, but I just can't see why some of you would choose left. I was born in this world and that's where I belong. I love it and I cannot leave it.

[ June 30, 2003: Message edited by: MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie ]

[peonydeepdelver]

I would no doubt go- "Remember, all I am offering is the truth..." ...er, yeah, um, left. I'd bring along none of my school buds since they despise the books so. But I would bring my best friend Ivy and her cousin Charleigh since for Halloween we all went as hobbits (I was Merry, Charleigh was Pippin, and Ivy was Frodo). And I'd bring my dog if that was allowed, and if I could I'd bring Bearito, the pony I ride at my riding lessons (who is also the only pony there that actually listens to me when I tell him to do stuff smilies/tongue.gif ).
Then we'd all go to live in either Bree with the hobbits (Nob! YAY!), or Rohan if it's before the Uruk-Hai are created. That Westfold level in the TTT game for Playstation 2 has me kinda freaked about the Uruks coming and setting everything on fire and stuff. smilies/eek.gif Or maybe I'd convince the Rohirrim to let me join their little army. smilies/tongue.gif

[Darby]

Grounds Keeper Willie, you're my hero! smilies/cool.gif
I really hadn't thought beyond my responsibilities to my family, but you've stated how I feel very well. I *would* regret never being able to see ME, but only in the sense that I've always wondered what it looks like and maybe other people will see it and I won't. So, I can't really say a choice like this would make me feel particularly warm inside. More like an anguished, "But I can't!"
But you are sooo right about all the wonder and adventure right here in THIS world. I love living, and I hope I get to live a very long time so I can see as big a part of the story as I possibly can. When my great grandmother was born, there were no cars in our driveways. When I was born there were no computers in our homes. What will our lives look like when I'm 60? When I'm 100? What kind of cool new toys will there be? What kind of history will we make? What tragedies, what triumphs, what wonders?
Hmm... If I had to go to ME permanently, I'd miss all that. And then I'd regret THAT choice. For me, I don't think there IS a choice without any regret, but I'd get over it pretty quick if I stayed in this world. All I'd have to do is think about my mother (who would NOT be happy in ME away from her books and her students), and my children, and my in-laws, and all the people who would miss us terribly because we couldn't possibly take them with us.
My dd is scheduled to have a few surgeries over the next few years. It's not a life-threatening condition, but it's something we could not treat in ME. Would it be fair to her, to uproot her and deny her that medical treatment? What about the fact that she'll need new glasses this fall?
Yep, you're right. Thanks for reminding me! smilies/smile.gif

Edit - something rather horrible just occurred to me as I was thinking further on GKW's post. Usually the only way you can leave THIS Earth permanently is by dying. What if the doors aren't actually doors between this world and ME, but doors between Life and Death? What happens after death? Is it any stretch to think you might continue your existance in a place like ME, when the major world religions seriously believe in things like Heaven and Reincarnation and Transmigration of the Soul and whatnot?
In which case, it's rather appalling to think of taking anyone with you, and completely awful to think of leaving them behind.
You may *think* you're in a mysterious place with two doors in front of you, but in actual fact you're in a hospital bed somewhere because you and most of your loved ones were caught in a gas line explosion, and now it's up to YOU whether they live and die.
Eeek! smilies/redface.gif

[ June 30, 2003: Message edited by: Darby ]

[Arien]

When I first saw the question I thought, yeah sure, I would love to live in Middle Earth. But after thinking it over in my Physics revision lesson, I am not so sure.

Firstly the thing about taking a few people with you; would they be as willing to go as I was? Would they want to leave everything behind? Unless our minds were connected, I wouldn't know. I only know one person who would come with me for certain. And then there is that whole issue about modern necessities, could I live without them? I could live without TV as I don’t really watch that much, and when I do watch it, it is always on MTV or Kiss. I don’t think I could live without the music we have here now, but I am willing to try. Taking my pointe shoes would be a must, otherwise I don’t think I would go. Reading, well I am sure there will be enough of that.

Food, I am a vegetarian, a very fussy one at that so food might be a problem. But hey I could live on, apples, bread, apples, bread, apples and bread. And no running HOT water would be annoying but I could get over it.

But despite all the bad things, I mean come on its Middle Earth! So it would be a yes for me.

[peonydeepdelver]

Usually the only way you can leave THIS Earth permanently is by dying.

Duh, Darby, you can always go to live on the moon! smilies/biggrin.gif

No, but my serious response to that is I think that people can believe what they want about Life and Death. I believe in reincarnation instead of Heaven and Hell, despite I'm Catholic. But I don't believe that we come back as human, I believe we come back as animals or something like that. I know some people believe (like ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks) that we go to another world, like an afterlife sort of thing, which means that there's no doubt that some of those people believe after Death we go to Middle-earth. If this is true, then there's no question as to whether you would want to or not, but you must.

Man, I'm rambling again, aren't I? I hate it when I do that! smilies/mad.gif Oh well. To lighten the mood of this post, I'll just add that I think our world is too advanced. People have become too dependent on machines as simple as lightbulbs. And if there's on thing I hate about Earth, it's cars. People got around just fine 200 years ago without them, so why do we need them? Just get a horse or a buggy! Those don't pollute the Earth, and they don't need vast plains of asphault and tar to go anywhere! That's the real reason I'd go to Middle-earth. To get away from cars. smilies/tongue.gif

[Horse-Maiden of the Shire]

When I first saw this topic, I said Oh, pshaw! Easy! Left, left, left. "Mordor, Gandalf? Is it left or right?" "Left." That would be my choice. But having read over these posts, it's a big toughie. But I'll stick with my choice...left. I would take my mom, my dog, my cat, my best friend Elen, and my sister Katrina. Now, I know there will be no electricity or computers or TV or fridges or chocolate, but this is too big of a chance to pass up. The way I see it is that all of our lives, we've had it the easy way. We've had electricity and cars and the Barrow-Downs( smilies/wink.gif). I would like to see how it is to live the hard way, so to speak. To live with fire as our source of heat, to live with fire (again) as our source of light, and to never eat Kraft Dinner for the rest of our lives. I would probably take a couple bars of chocolate withe me, though. Then I would savour them, and savour them well. Also, like Birdland, somebody upstairs must be wanting me to take a change of pace because otherwise WHY would there be two portals you could go into? Why, Downers? Why?

All in all, I would pick left.

[Lush]

Moaning over the lost opportunity to taste Shire-brewed beer and make eyes at some hot Elven ranger, I'd go right, because I don't want to waste an opportunity to make this world a litte less crappy.

[Iarwain]

I'd go right too, for Lush's last stated reason, and the fact that I enjoy humanity, its history, and I'd like to keep my perception of reality as it is, without jumbling everything up into a mess of multidemensional portals and strange doors and wormholes and such. Middle-Earth may be realistic, it may be the most realistic fantasy ever devised, but it still remains but a shadow of what reality is, has been, and promises to become in the future.

Iarwain

[ July 01, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

[Darby]

Peonydeepdelver, if you want to get away from cars, you could always go homesteading in the Northwest Territories! Get yourself a nice husky sled team, and get right back to nature. smilies/wink.gif 'Course, I hear the bugs are just brutal any time it's warm enough not to be completely frozen, but hey - you could set up camp miles from nowhere and enjoy all the convienances of pre-modern life!
Seriously, though, I always was a little tempted by the idea of homesteading. Learning to live off the land, being completely self-sufficiant... I taught myself to knit instead, lol! And I console myself that I'd be at least a little useful if society collapsed, because I can knit, and I have successfully taught two children to read. I can build a waterproof shelter, and I know how to keep bears away from the campsite, and how not to get giardia. Oh, and I can use a rifle, and I've some familiarity with bow and arrow, too (though my aim stinks). And if I really tried, I might even remember how to make soap.
Still, Middle Earth would be a big adjustment. I don't think my origami skills would be in much demand. smilies/wink.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

Lush, Iarwain, Willie, and many others,

You are very eloquent in your defense of the here and now, and our need to have people who will stand up and try to make a difference.

This is going to sound like a very strange thing to say, but I believe I may have a different view on this because of my age.

For over fifty years, I have been butting my head against the system in various shapes and forms. I went to college in the late sixties with all that that entailed, then grad school in medieval history, and eventually ended up marrying a labor organizer from the farmworkers who went to law school because he saw it as a way to change things. I've been a college professor, librarian, old style activist way back when, teacher, mom, and wife. And, believe me, I've enjoyed every minute of it.

If I'm still lucky enough to be here for the next fifty years, I'll keep searching for new windmills to tilt at. And, of course, there are plenty more unexplored.

Still,....every so often I get a hankering for something that goes beyond what I've seen and done on this planet, all those possibilities that I sense in this present reality. Something that builds on what we have here but manages to go beyond it. That's why I love myth. So if there was really some way to explore an alternative world like middle-earth and if I could bring the people I loved with me (that's a big "If"), I think I would take a shot at it.

And, in another strange way, I wonder just how different that left portal would be. I mean Elves and hobbits and dwarves all embody pieces of what we are as Men. Tolkien even said that. Although the externals of the world would be different and the physical appearance of "people" different, maybe at some gut level there might be more similarities than we think. I will admit I have a neighbor or two who fits the mode of certain hobbits in both a positive and negative sense.

sharon

[ July 02, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[Neferchoirwen]

If I'd have a family, I'd think about them as well...but they'd have to migrate with me.

But I would never miss a chance to "migrate," if you will, to Middle Earth. Even if it's in the third age. What role will I play in the coming society as the third age wanes into the fourth age? Will I be one of the founders of the new alliance of men and dwarves? Will I be doing trade with Hobbits?

The possibilty of something new literally makes my adrenalin run through my brain, automatically sending me there virtually in my own imagination...

[The Saucepan Man]

Well, I can honestly say that I would choose right without a moment's hesitation. Like many others, I would love to visit ME, but I would most certainly not wish to stay there permamently.

My main reasons are:

I was born into this world and I feel very strongly that this is therefore where I belong. For me, ME is a place that I like to read and talk about. It is a place to which I can escape temporarily while reading. But, for me, there are other forms of escapism too - other books, films, television - not just ME. And there are just too many non-ME related things (people, places, interests, events etc) which root me firmly to this world and which in many ways define me. Most, if not all, of the people (family and friends) that I would wish to take with me would have no interest in going to ME whatsoever. And I would not feel able to impose a life in ME on my two young children, whose future is in this world. I could not deny them that future. Finally, although it is perhaps the weakest reason, I have no wish to do without the paraphenalia of modern living. I am unashamedly fond of cars, computers, modern music, hot running water, frozen food, dishwashers, washing-machines etc etc and I could not imagine life without them. smilies/rolleyes.gif

Yes, there are many aspects of this world that drive me to despair. But most of these - war, cruelty, suffering, corruption and the like - are present in ME too. And if my life here might occasionally feel dull and uninspiring, why would it be any different in ME? There is no guarantee that we would end up living the life of Reilly in Rivendell or Lothlorien or helping to save ME from the Dark Lord. As was said earlier, we might just as likely end up pig farming in Bree or begging in the streets of Minas Tirith. And if you feel confident that you would be able to find an inspiring life in ME or help to make a difference to that world, why should that not be the case in this world?

Yes, you may consider me an unromantic pragmatist, but there you have it. smilies/tongue.gif smilies/wink.gif

[Lush]

You are very eloquent in your defense of the here and now, and our need to have people who will stand up and try to make a difference.

I knew it! I can even make the word "crappy" eloquent! smilies/biggrin.gif I am so cool.

For over fifty years, I have been butting my head against the system in various shapes and forms.

See, the trick is: don't butt your head. Just live, knowing that you were given life for some reason, no matter how remote. Anyway, that's how I do it, without going insane about Chernobyl and Rwanda.

Having said that, I certainly would never hold your back from going left. No arm-twisting here! Certainly not from me! smilies/wink.gif

[Diamond18]

My first knee-jerk reaction was "right, right, right all the way", and I haven't changed my mind reading through the posts. Some reasons have been ably stated by others, but I'll try to explain it from my perspective, anyway.

First: (treating Middle-earth hypothetically as a real, alternate world) Middle-earth is a fallen world. For that reason, it is, at it's core, no different from this world. There are many superficial differences, ways ME is better, and ways our world is better, but I believe that in the end it all averages out into everything being the same old, same old. Good and evil, truth and lies, bravery and cowardice, intelligence and ignorance, life and death, etc. are all fundamental elements in both Middle-earth and our world. Because of that, the most important thing in life is not where you are, but who you are and what you do. Everyone is ultimately responisble for their own actions, regardless of circumstances or society. Middle-earth is no Heaven, so the same rules of personal responsibilty apply. I.E., happiness is not a state of being, but a state of mind.

There is, of course, the question of purpose and fate. I do believe that every person was created by God and put on earth at a certain time and place, for a reason. So I think we each have purpose in this world. Whether we actually fulfil our purpose is not, I think, a given. We have our free will, for better or for worse. But I do believe that the purpose is there.

I'm exploring this whole theme in a fantasy novel, in which two 20-year-old co-workers (not friends, which is an important point) enter a different world. In my story, this permanent transition fits their purpose in life, as I set up their "real" world lives as being quite directionless. They had no close friends, were utterly unapprieciated and ofttimes totally ignored by their families, and had not yet actively pursued improving their own lives. I did this because I saw that sort of situation as being the only justification for my removing them from this world into the other. I have them affect the other world in real and tangible ways. I didn't just send them there for fun, or as an escape. Because they don't escape their own selves, and they don't have fun. It's a hard experience for both of them. I never try to idealize that other world. Which world is better is not the point of the story, the point is having a purpose wherever you happen to be. They were failures at their purpose in this world, but I gave them a second chance in the other world. At the end of the story, I give them the choice to stay there or return here, and they stay, not because the other world is perfect, or comfortable, or even all that different, but because it's where they finally served a purpose and made a difference. So I guess what I'm saying with that story and this post, is that when you're given the choice, I think it's best to stay where God has put you. In my very fictional story, I just happen to be the "god" that decided my characters didn't belong in the world where they were born, and so put them in a different place.

Which seques into the point that Middle-earth isn't a real world. Tolkien's stories, and my stories, and all stories, are just stories about this world. Even if they take place in alternate imaginary worlds, all the elements are based off of/taken from this world.

I firmly believe that this is the only real world there is, besides Heaven and Hell. Exploring the concept of alternate universes is all well in good as part of the human imagination, but I'm not one to actually believe that I could go there (besides the imaginative experience of movies/books/TV/dreamng, etc.) I'm never going to Middle-earth, so when given the hypothetical choice to decide where I belong, I'm just going to say that I belong where I belong. I.E., I don't believe that I have a real choice. I think this is important to consider, because if you spend all your time wishing you were somewhere else where you can never be, you're just missing out on what is real where you are.

Of course, as a Christian, I believe that this world is just a stepping stone to Heaven, but that's a whole different philosopical ramble. smilies/wink.gif

[Iarwain]

Inspired by Diamond's applauseworthy summation, I think I'll explain my last post.

The thing about Middle-Earth is that it was created by an ordinary person. He may have had unusual talents with languages, and he was gifted with a wonderful imagination, but Tolkien was human, and his literary masterpiece reflects that fact infinitely. Middle-Earth may be incredibly realistic, but it is a fantasy. It may posess extraordinary depth and detail, yet it remains simplistic to an extreme, lacking a full history, while what it does have is a selective framework, missing the background of entire races. It is a myth. It was designed as such, and remains to be so. As a whole, it lacks the complexities of reality, while being inconsistent with the detail already provided.

Ever Wandering,
Iarwain

[ July 03, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

[peonydeepdelver]

Peonydeepdelver, if you want to get away from cars, you could always go homesteading in the Northwest Territories! Get yourself a nice husky sled team, and get right back to nature.

Actually I would do that, but I live in the NorthEAST, and it'd take a mighty long time to get over there. smilies/tongue.gif Besides, I would still choose the red pill- er, Middle-earth anytime over the Northwest Territories. No offense to that good ol' unpopulated mass of land. smilies/biggrin.gif

[Child of the 7th Age]

Thought I'd bump this up, since it's been a year, and see if there are any newcomers who'd like to add their opinions.

~Child

[mark12_30]

...can an old-comer play too?

Open-fire cooking, broad open spaces, long wild roads, no office cubicles, fresh water and air, plenty of time in the garden and with the fruit trees.... left, baby, LEFT LEFT LEFT. Rohan, then Rivendell, then Bree. Maybe I'd settle in Bree, with frequent trips here and there.

Except--

I couldn't possibly go without my wonderful amazing husband, the love of my life always and forever; and he's insulin-dependant. They don't have that there. He couldn't come.

Drat.

Drat drat drat drat drat.

CONFOUND IT ALL.

...Right..... **sob**

Ah, what we do for love.
(Looks around Mordorish office cubicle, sighs, and plods through orcs and enslaved humans toward Mount Doom.)

[Nurumaiel]

Last year I might have said left without thinking, because while I loved life here and now I wanted adventure. Last year I wasn't contented with the way I lived. It was all right, but I either wanted to go wandering the roads or just up and die and go to Heaven. I didn't want to stay where I was.

To live in the Shire would fulfill every dream of life I've ever had... green hillsides and little roads that wander to a friend's house(/hole), and perhaps a little farm of my own with some chickens and cows. Abandon all technology and find my entertainment in the whistling of the birds. I would go at a moment's notice, except I could not come back. And I know I'd regret it for all of my life.

The sufferings of this world? Faith, the sufferings of this world are what made me love life. Not just because of the aftermath of the sufferings, when peace could be known once again and you would realize with a shock just how many people had cared enough to help you, but in the sufferings themselves. And I don't really know why; I merely have vague guesses. And doesn't Middle-Earth have sufferings too?

I would have to leave almost everyone I loved. I could take a few with me, as it's been said, but fairly everyone I've really met and known has been a dear friend to me, and I would hate to leave any of them behind.

Again, the sufferings of this world. I would suffer all the sufferings if I could have one of the joys, because they are by far more sweet than the sufferings are painful. I taught myself to find joy in the simplest little things and I found joy everywhere. I found joy in a smile from a little boy, something I otherwise would have carelessly tossed aside. And so I have enough beautiful little joys in this world that I can do without the joys of Middle-Earth.

Lack of adventures for me? Never! That's what I thought last year. Everything is an adventure here, I just have to look and see it. Do I really want an adventure that involves running about with a sword nearly getting my head hacked off by orcs? No, of course I don't! Perish the thought. In a few minutes I'll be walking out into the open of the house and children will be bustling everywhere demanding I do this and that with them, and I'll have the adventures of romping with them, perhaps cooking for them, or working on the dress that needs to be sewed, or that knitting, or maybe just a quiet ramble outdoors. Those adventures aren't only more enjoyable and simpler than narrowly avoiding getting your head hacked off, but they're more exciting because the happiness lets the excitement show. If an orc was running after me with a blood-stained battleaxe I'd be in dread terror and wishing I was home, not thinking how adventurous and fun and exciting it was.

Most important point of all, I'm a Roman Catholic... to leave this world would be to leave the most beautiful things of that Faith. I could still be a Catholic in Middle-Earth but I couldn't practice my Faith. The inhabitants of Middle-Earth would eventually hate me because I was such a gloomy sort of person, not having received the Eucharist in ages. I suppose I could drag along a priest, but what happens when he dies? And what if God wanted me to be a nun? Where would I find a convent?

Oh yes, the little joys of this life. Little joys that can't be found in Middle-Earth. Seeing the sun rise over these trees and these hills and thinking of what adventures I'll have at this house; watching the lads win a baseball game and being happy because they are; anticipating when we'll see childhood friends again whom we haven't seen for years, friends who couldn't possibly be in Middle-Earth; finally achieving friendship with the squirrels that have been avoiding you, the squirrels called Tipp, Fenian, Kerry, Derry, and that wicked lovable squirrel who I shall not name, squirrels that aren't in Middle-Earth; returning from a day at San Francisco to see houses melt away into woodlands and wilderness and feel the delightful, happy little thrill that you're home. To go to Middle-Earth would mean never to feel the happiness that I'm home again. I'd regret it forever and ever if I didn't go right.

Besides, what would become of my two baby brothers if I were to leave? They don't have the medical equipment at Middle-Earth that my brothers needed to actually survive. What if the little lad had another liver rejection. What if another baby was born with the same problems and couldn't get a transplant? The lad just barely survived as it is; in Middle-Earth he wouldn't have had the slimmest chance, bar a miracle more extreme than the one that already took place with all the equipment and highly-trained doctors here.

I love my life, with all its sufferings. A darling little baby was born this morning and if I had lived in Middle-Earth my family couldn't have been contacted to be told the beautiful news. I'm too happy here to live in Middle-Earth. I'm not through with this world yet. There are too many places to go, too many people to meet, too many things to see. Too much love and happiness to completely leave behind.

I'd go right.

[PaleStar]

Hello! I'm new, as you might be able to see...to reply;
It's a hard choice to make, whether to go left or right. Personally, I think I'd fit in a whole lot better on the left...but what of the language barrier? Even if that wasn't an issue, assuming whoever's dumping this choice on me will let me speak Westron, there's still the matter of my big fat attitude; I'd get in trouble constantly.
But, I suppose, on M-E, you can get away from that, away from your life, it seems. I would happily spend all my days alone in the wilderness than deal with modern life, even if it was during the failing times of the Third Age.
to add a bit of myself; I'm writing a novel with this similar theme; it's a high price to pay, but, seeing the world as it is, it seems more worth it.

*turns left*

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Welcome to the Downs, PaleStar! Your decision to come here was a good one to start with! ;) Hope you enjoy yourself!

[Firefoot]

It's a much harder question than meets the eye... and though I'd be tempted to say left I think that I would eventually choose the right. I love Middle-earth and it's inhabitants (especially hobbits...) and "living in the Shire" has always sounded like fun, but I certainly wouldn't fit in with them. There is too much in this world to need to go to ME. And, *gasp* no computer?!?! And there are some books that I don't think I could live without (not just Tolkien ;) ). So I would go right, and leave ME as a story.

[elronds_daughter]

Hmm.... I have to say that I would probably go left. even if I couldn't take anyone with me, I'd go left to Middle Earth. And I'd probably live somewhere near Hobbits. If the Hobbits of the Shire have a problem with 'big people' living there, then I'd go to Bree. And even if I couldn't be a Hobbit (which I swear to people that I already am ;)) then I would at least dress like a Hobbit and adopt their habits. But alas, I would have to remain a girl. But maybe it wouldn't be too bad. I think I could live with out my computer and adapt to having no technology. :)

cheers!

Elrond's (other) daughter

[Hama Of The Riddermark]

I'd go left...although it would be a hard choice...the thought of never seeing my electric guitar again :(, that said I'd take my acoustic guitar, and some music, and a load of spare strings...

I'd also take my parents, my girlfriend, and my Tolkein Collection (may seem pointless, but I just couldn't say goodbye forever to that)

I'm also really fed up with the world as it stands. I'd love to get away from an America run by G.W, and from the Israel conflict, and the war in Iraq, and so many other things that make me sad.

Ideally I'd like to live in Rohan as portayed by P.J, I love the rustic viking style air to it, and the great rolling landscapes have a special place in my heart. If I had to pick a specific place in Rohan, i'd choose Edoras. The golden hall, king Theoden (or whoever was reigning) and so many other things...of course I'd have to know Rohirric and Westron...if that was a condition of the portal...

[Niluial]

I would most certainly go through the left door. It would take time for me to make the decision, though I know I would go through the left. I am not so ‘close’ to any family members and don’t get home sick too easily. So why would I go through the right and miss the opportunity? By the sound of it I would meet many of you there. :p

Best Wishes,
Niluial

[Son of Númenor]

I would take the path to the right, unless someone could give me assurance that I wouldn't be dumped off at the Black Gate if I took the left.

Seriously, though, the temptation would be great to go to the left. I doubt there are many here with more than 150 posts who have not at some point longed to vanish into Middle-earth. The possibility of being a cavalier of Rohan, a knight of Gondor, or a Ranger of the North, however small the chances that I would have such a life in M-e, would tempt me beyond any temptation I have ever experienced.

In the end, though, I would make the choice to stay here in good ol' Regular-earth. Besides the simple facts that I love my family and my friends (and the Barrow-downs - they don't even have the Internet in M-e!), I hope in my life to see and be a part of some real, positive changes in our world. The possibility of those changes in the world I know now, outweighs any love I could ever have for an imaginary world - even if that world became a reality in some parallel universe.

[Alda]

Years from now, after taking the road less traveled, I would like to look back and know in my heart that it has made all the difference.

My wife running barefoot in a sunlit glade of the Old Forest. A glimpse of old Bombadil and Goldberry with her water lilies. The sadness of the firstborn passing into the West. Just a glimpse of these things would make Iluvatar's gift much easier to bear before the end.

This is one instance where "the left hand path" would seem to be the right path so to speak :)

Although I think someone might have beat us to it, where did Malbeth the Seer get his information? Someone who has read the books perhaps?

No regrets, Middle-Earth or Bust

[Lalaith]

If going left meant there-and-back-again, then yes. It is good to travel and seek adventure, but I think it is also best to return home at journey's end. And as the deal on offer here entails no going back, so my answer would be right. I love my life and those in it, and I would not foresake it or them, even for Middle Earth.

[PaleStar]

Wow...Alda, that post was...simply beautiful. I think you've captured all of our feelings quite nicely.
I still stand by my choice; there is no chance that the earth will ever return to the state of M-E in the First and Second ages.

[Mariska Greenleaf]

I wouldn't go left, not a chance.
I'm satisfied with my imagination of being in Middle-Earth, and I do (day)dream about what life in ME would be like, but I would never be able to say goodbye forever to my life in this world.
Just a silly thought: I could live with the idea that life after death would be a Middle-Earth life, that would be nice. But as I said, it's a silly thought... :rolleyes:

[HerenIstarion]

With Diamond 18's and MLD-grounds-keeper-willie's posts in mind (that is, I do not have to rewrite loads of points pro and contra :)) I would quote Son Of Numenor too:

Seriously, though, the temptation would be great to go to the left

Emphasis mine

With which, I, alas that my curiosity and longing still burn me from the inside, turn to the right

[Thorongil]

I would definately go left. Because, the past few years I have started to find this world boring, compared to the number of invented fantasy worlds I've experienced. There is much fun in our world too, but it doesn't really fit me(Especially when most of the people my age where I live has the most fun when drinking). And when I have the most fun visiting imaginery worlds like M-E, of course I'd go.

[Imladris]

I would go right. Middle-earth is just a world peopled with weak mortals. It would go the same path that our world has gone. It will turn bad and weak and dirty like our own world because that is the nature of man. So I would rather keep the ME that is somewhat "good" and "noble" a fresh and living memory that to see it go down the drain with my own eyes as I have seen with this world. Middle Earth is just another world after all. What is it that Tolkien has said? The little folk avoid us now. I wonder why that is? What happened from then to now I wonder?

Also, I would miss my computer. I would miss the modern conveniences (light, electricity, etc). I would miss going to the movies. I would miss seeing Spideyman 2 *points at avatar* There is something for me to in this world (as has been said several times I think) and I don't want to run away from it.

[Mad Baggins]

If I could take people or things with me, I would go left. However...just by myself? I would go right. It is indeed a sad world we live in, but I love too many things here to leave it.

[Araréiel]

No questions, I'd go left and take only my boyfriend and his adorable little daughter. I hate this world we are in and always dream of escaping it. Actually, we both are to the point that we are trying to decide if we should move to Monaco in a couple of years, or maybe to Tuscany. The world is a terrible place, and especially America.

We are so backward here, taxed to death, without money for schools, yet we are paying for research into an elevator into space, and I swear I am not making that up!!
From NASA: http://flightprojects.msfc.nasa.gov/fd02_elev.html
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html
Other countries tax less, yet have univeral health care and better school. At the July 4th celebration the commentator said we erected the Statue of Liberty to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence! (Actually, it was a gift from France in 1876, 100 years after the signing). This is how stupid this country is.

The overall world isn't much better.

I'd give anything to go live in Middle Earth and get away from the hell we call Planet Earth!!

[Mirkgirl]

I see one problem with taking people with you... they actually have to have a choice too. I mean, I wouldn't be overjoyed if I wake up somewhere new and find out that some good friend of mine decided to take me as luggagge ;)

I don't really know what I'd do. It'd depend on how I feel that day I guess... I know it'd be a one time chance, but does that mean I have to take it? The whole idea of choice includes the possibility of saying no. I'd be really tempted, no doubt. But I think I'd stay in the world were I belong. (:

[Evisse the Blue]

I'll go left, into the 'flawed' fantasy world of a human (oh, but a human genius!) And those I take with me will sure enough want to go: my sister, my mom, my dog and my boyfriend (if he does not want to go, well, there are enough hot Elven rangers, like Lush said :p). The thing is, it does not matter all that much where you live, life is in the end more or less what you make of it. And this is exactly why I'd choose to leave a few luxuries behind: like hot water, tv, computer, my cd's, my books (including LOTR!), my skating videos, my X Files episodes... (oh, dear, I already have second thoughts about all this). But no - I know that I could never ever resist the temptation of experiencing what that world is like. The curiosity and excitement would kill me if I didn't go, even anticipating the hardships I'd possibly meet!

But - Child, a question: wouldn't it be difficult for us not to 'divulge' our real identities and where we come from? It'd be a right 'culture clash'. Or are we to be brainwashed once we get there?
Gee, I'm actually taking all this seriously. Go figure.

[Araréiel]

That's just it-it's a fantasy world, and I'd want to be a part of it. I can leave behind me almost everything. I'm connected to only two people in this world, both of them feeling the way I do. None of us are rooted to Earth. My family disowned me for not being able to prevent a death I wasn't even there for, my boyfriend's family disowned him because his brother landed in jail while living with his mom-my boyfriend's ex-stepmom. And his daughter is so young. TVs and computers and modern things matter nothing to us. A great escape is to go to the woods to get away from everything. Go camping, hunt our own food. The only thing we would need is matches since I never got down the hang of starting fire without matches. It's hard, but relaxing, and I once did it for 5 weeks. Pitched a simple tent so I could see the stars, dug a latrine many yards away, made a cooking area, prayed no wild animal would eat me while I slept (that's how deep woods I go-there are bears and mountain lions). It was hard work, but relaxing. And really, I missed nothing about home. To go jump naked (or nearly) into a cold stream after a hot day is such a thrill, and to sing while walking among the trees. To appreciate the beauty in such simple things as the veins of a leaf without people calling me weird and mental is such a rarity I only experience in nature. It's liberation that can only be felt when I disconnect myself even more than usual from what's around me.

I could so easily walk away from my life here that it's almost frightening. I could be a butterfly and just set off, leaving behind me all the meaningless things I own. All that matters to me is the one I love, and the little one I love. If my family doesn't want me, I don't care to be around them either. Would I miss the stapler on my desk? No. Would I miss the ocean? They have waters in ME.

Seriously I have thought about putting together a retreat for a week for people who want to go live for seven days in Middle Earth on Earth. In character, costume, everything. An escape. I've got most of it planned out and written, just not the location. We may invest in some property, a parcel that's 360 acres and untouched, that would be perfect to set up like ME for a place to retreat once a year or more with other people who want to get away. It sounds crazy, but so is regular life, and it's so mice to dream about getting away from everything, or even to plan the day I can make it happen. I wouldn't think twice about going left.

[Rilwen Gamgee]

No matter how much half of me longs to turn left, I'm going to get up and walk through the right door. Why? Yes, through that left door there are wide open fields, mysterious forests, ancient towers, ents, and the option to go running barefoot as I please, but who would I share it with? As I read Child's opening post, I began scanning through the list in my mind of who to bring along. "Mom? Dad? My sister? Which friend?" If someone dear to me walked into Middle-earth with me, the thought of leaving the rest of them behind would haunt me forever. So, I will happily climb out of bed, and enter the world where Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and others only exist on that little section of shelf in my room where I keep my Tolkien books. :)

[Aredhel]

I could certainly get along well in ME. I'd have to seriously think about family and friends, though. I belong to a Medieval Society...and some would never forgive me if I didn't take them with me! Armorers and fighters, cooks and computer programmers, I wouldn't know where to begin! And what about my Husband?! I doubt he'd like living without his computers. If faced with it, I might jump and leave everyone behind. It's cruel, but - they wouldn't be able to adjust.
Those I love most are on medications they couldn't take with them. Sad, but true.
Oh, well. Wandering alone in a strange land, I'd be happier if they all stayed here, safe and sound. Even my cat would have to stay- he's on meds too!
BAH. :(

[Pippin Pondlily]

I would go left because I would be all in the moment and ready to do something completely thrilling and outrageous. And I'm sure that though there will most definitely be things I'll miss -- I would grow to love Middle Earth. How could you bloody not?

With me I'd bring my father, my brother, and my friends Maureen and Robby because why the hell not? I'd also bring my great grandmother's bible and probably my life-long teddy bear. Sure. That's all though I suppose I wouldn't want to overpack and after a while you wouldn't need anything else.

I would want to see The Shire most of all and hopefully track down Bombadil somewheres eh?

The third age ... that's quite a lot of things to see, I don't suppose those who chose the left door would want to say anything about any outcomes? Ha

- P. Pondlily

[The Elusive Spirit]

Hmmm... That’s a tough one. About a year ago I would have said left in an instant.
However with the passing of time it is more difficult to choose. I’ve seen more of our world to very nearly fall in love with it (and it only took 17 years)!
I have to say that now, left would still be my answer, although not without a lot of thought. The opportunity would be hard to pass up. I’m up for a world where I can start over new. I guess the weight of my future decisions is weighing to heavily on me now. I just want something a little simpler. Middle Earth could be my chance. The diversion from normal life would be great! An adventure is right up my alley. Trying to survive in another country certainly qualifies as one. It would not be anything like fighting the great evil, but I’d be ok with it.
I would defiantly bring Beanamer because she would hate me if I left her. She is my oldest friend and I can count on her. I would probably also bring her sister, if she was up for it, because I think she would like it. The three of us would take Middle Earth by storm! Ha Ha! It would be infinitely hard to leave most of my family and friends though. Not sure they’d forgive me, but I’d go for me, not them.
Leftward HO! To Rohan (and freedom) for me!

[Laitoste]

Wow...a difficult decision paired with convincing arguments for each side! You're not helping me, people!

How, exactly, would I survive in Middle-Earth? I can't speak any of the languages, I can barely cook with a recipe, I can't sew, I can't build anything, and I can barely ride a horse! Although I fear I may not be giving myself all the credit I'm due in some of these areas.

On the other hand, if I'm willing to put the time and effort into something, I can learn it rather easily. I'm decent with animals (although I just learned that there is a greater partnership that I can reach with both my dogs and horses), and I have a few basic skills in sewing (and knitting) and cooking.

I think I could survive in Middle-Earth, though it would be hard. Now onto the more difficult part...

I don't really have any close friends where I live, and I've never really liked the culture of Northern Wisconsin. I still don't know what I want to do (or am meant to do), and I feel I'm sitting in a stagnent pool in my small town. I, too, dislike the materialism and general lack of values shown in today's America. Still, I love my country.

My parents recently took me to Washington, D.C. (and Gettysburg, and Philadelphia), and I finally realized how much I love it here. I don't always like what the government does, but that doesn't mean everything about it here is awful. Sorry about that. I've noticed people complaining about America just because the government isn't what they want it to be.

I don't know where my life is headed. I'd probably go left, seeing the portal as a signpost telling me which direction to go. But then I'd leave behind everything I loved: my books, my family (I'm sure none of them would want to come), a chance for higher education, a chance to travel this world, plus more that I can't think of at 10:45 at night when my dog needs to go out. And anyway, I go off to college next year. Who knows what my opinion will be then? In five years, what will it be? In ten? When I'm on my deathbed? Still, I'd choose left.

But can I bring my dachshunds?

[Diamond18]

Ah... this old fascinating thread. I saw the title on the main forum index and thought, "Is that what I think it is....?" Some threads are so thought provoking they stick in your mind long after you've read them. :)

I'm still a Right person, actually even moreso than I was the last time I posted. But funnily enough, in that post I used a story I was writing as an analogy and since then I've realized that my ending didn't work -- my characters, like me, just plain ended up being Right people despite everything I wrote into their lives to make it as easy as possible to leave this world behind. One of those instances where you realize you're just forcing an outcome that doesn't really fit. That realization and change of plan really meshes with my stance all the more, though, so I won't complain. I think the trouble is because fantasy worlds, no matter how much time you spend imagining them, when compared to our world, always end up being small and narrow and limited. M-E may be one of the deepest, but at the end it's still the imaginings of one man's mind, and so if I stood there I would probably be hit even harder with its limitations.

And then of course, since I am a writer, even living in M-E I'd have all these stories in my head that have been inspired by this world. I wouldn't be able to show them to anyone from M-E. That would be a drag. I couldn't force myself to forget about everything I know and write only M-E appropriate stories, that just wouldn't be me. I can just see the look on a hobbit's face when reading something I wrote. Hee. Hee. Hee. (evilman smiley where are you?)

At any rate, I still think it's a mistake to measure the worth of the two worlds by comparing good and bad elements. I'm not basing my desicion on the fact that "I can't live without all my friends and family/modern conveniences/favorite stories/rock music" etc. (though the thought of no more rock does make me shiver ;p) because frankly I hope that if was called to live without those things in this world I could indeed survive without them. All those "comforts" can't be the things that keep you alive. Losing them could very well happen. After all, there are lots of places in this world, like Third World countries, where there are no modern conveinences or free culture. I thank God that I do live in America and have the luxury of thinking this world is pretty swell. I don't want to disrespect the trials and tribulations of other nations and say that life in America is bad because the rent is high, so you won't hear me screaming "get me outta here" anytime soon. :)

Back to comparison to M-E: Sauron beats the pants off of any unpopular world leader/government that's ever been in this world, so I have to laugh when that is cited as a reason to leave here. We have the benefit of knowing that in LotR everything turns out pretty swell in the end, with Sauron being defeated. But the inhabitants of the story don't have that foresight. Indeed, one of the huge themes of the book is that even when you don't know if there will ever be a Shire to go home to you must still persevere. One of the things that makes Tolkien's work so powerful is the hope in face of bleakness -- to turn from our own world in the way that the Hobbits et al did not turn from theirs seems very ironic considering! Of course, then there are the Elves, who did take their equivalent to the "Left" and sail away to Valinor, but they were immortal and so that was really their "heaven" and I won't begrudge them such a thing.

And now... goodness, I just remembered that I made tea for myself nearly two hours ago and it's been steeping ever since.

[Lyta_Underhill]

Hmmmm....for me, I think it would be a matter more of a 'kick in the pants' rather than a choice. I think that, if I were thrown into Middle Earth, I would love some of it and hate some of it. But what in this world are those of you who wish to experience something new trying to get away from? Wouldn't it be awful if you took that with you into Middle Earth and couldn't get back? I think that it would be possible to truly enjoy Middle Earth OR this world if one became a 'different person'. Middle Earth would be a 'kick in the pants,' a call for you to become something different, to experience the new and challenging, to liven up your life. That is available here in this world as well, but I, like Frodo, am getting rather used to being Master of my own Bag End and I think it gets harder and harder to change my life and outlook unless someone or something hits me over the head with it. I think I prefer to wander the backroads and woods and meet up with the Elves and Fairies, rather than being handed the Ring of Power and being told to survive by the seat of my pants. Simply put, even though I am not in Middle Earth, I can see the aspects of it here well enough to enjoy its comforts in my imagination, and I need not be thrust into the Fire to live in Middle Earth. (Although if I were kicked into Middle Earth, I could probably get used to it!)

I sure hope that made sense. It's real late here! Goodnight all!
Cheers,
Lyta

P.S. Anyone think about what it would be like to be all comfortable and complacent, looking forward to a quiet life and suddenly being thrown into a world of danger? Did I ever mention I sometimes identify too closely with Frodo? ;)

[Diamond18]

reaches out for the red pill
I'll go left, into the 'flawed' fantasy world of a human (oh, but a human genius!)

Isn't the Red Pill more like choosing the Right Door? In the Matrix, the Blue Pill leads back to a more comforting, likable world, and the Red Pill leads to the dire reality. Granted, the Matrix-world is patterned after our world as it is, the world we'd be staying in by taking the Right Door, while the "real world" in that movie is a science fiction creation, but the principle is still there. The Matrix is like the temptation of the "sun dappled Elven glade" but the characters chose to face the technologically scarred, war-torn eco-disaster of the "real world" because the harder path was the more rewarding one.

However, seeing as how I didn't see the third Matrix movie because the second one was so uninspiring, I can't really say if the final outcome was portrayed as rewarding or not. :)

[Nurumaiel]

...but I, like Frodo, am getting rather used to being Master of my own Bag End...

:eek: Lyta, you have summed up my entire feelings in these shorts words. It's something that I found very hard to describe; I commend you for your excellent work in saying it half a sentence!

To wake up in the morning in my own little room and hear the birds singing and little feet just beginning to run about... Sure, I could have a little room in the Shire (or wherever I would live in Middle-Earth) but it wouldn't by my little room, because I already have a little room. Birds would sing, but they wouldn't be the birds I've tempted for hours a day with seeds so they would come perch on my hand. Little feet might run about and I might hear children's laughter but they wouldn't be the dear children I've become accustomed to hearing.

And to wander out into the garden and bid good morning to the flowers, feeling delighted when I see new little buds blooming. It would be highly unlikely that I wouldn't have a garden in the Shire, but it wouldn't be my garden because my garden wouldn't be home.

I could have books in the Shire, I suppose, but they wouldn't be my books that have been passed down through the family till they came to me. And I could sit by a fireside and read, but it wouldn't be the fireside of my childhood, the one I have sat by for years, the one I sat by when I first heard tales of Frodo and Sam.

I could live without these things, sure, but it would be hard to be somewhere else, in an entirely different world, and still have these things that were not mine. Rather like raising a little boy who was your own and then switching sons with some other woman. You'd still have a little boy but he wouldn't be yours, would he? Of course the pain of switching books, gardens, etc. would be much less than the pain of switching sons! I merely use it as an example... not one quite equal to the situation, I fear.

I would have small regrets about not going to Middle-Earth... it would be lovely to Walk to Rivendell for real. :D

[Willow]

Right. Not a doubt.
What if we got to Middle-earth, and it wasn't what we wanted? We'd be stuck and disappointed.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Long ago, the temptation for me to take the left door would have great. It would have been comparable to Ar-Pharazôn's quest to wrest the Undying Lands from the Valar and claim immortality, shunning the dread of Death. But such temptation comes of ignorance - ignorance of what is, and ignorance of what is desired. This blindness could be summed up in a sentence: That world, indeed any world, is better than this one. So I'll go there.

But is it really? Is life at Middle-earth all it's cracked up to be? A great adventure, or an endless peace, perhaps? Really, what would make Middle-earth superior to Planet Earth?

The setting would have been different, but the same cast participate in the play. Characters with the same weaknesses, the same darkness that lies within the people in this world. Sure, we see shining examples of those who had overcome the shadow, but in the end, we'll see too much of Bill Ferny and Gríma.

It is the truth, in this world as in that of Tolkien's imagination, that vigilance tires. The terror of the Enemy might have been fresh in the people's mind by the end of LotR, but how long before the people grow indifferent again? What if there are no new Travellers to stop the despoliation of the new Sharkey's engines? What if there is no new Gandalf to rally all the Free People to the go up against the return of the Shadow? During the first three Ages of the Sun, it was almost too late to stop the Shadow - indeed, in the Age of the Trees, they were too late. There is precedence for complacency in Middle-earth. What would happen to the next ages? Would the hobbits one day awake to smog, AIDS, or famine?

It would be better for me to live in this world. At least now, with everyone seeing the ascendancy of man’s destructive abilities, people are slowly turning the tide. That would be nice.

Besides, it's escapism. I'd hate the day I have to escape from such a world.

You're just too morbid. Admit it.

[Evisse the Blue]

Diamond, I get your point. I was thinking along the lines of not which is the most rewarding, but which is the most difficult path. Going left would take a lot of adapting and fighting against hardships, despite having one's curiosity infinitely rewarded; while going right (staying behind) would mean settling comfy in the same life as before, with a hint of regret, or maybe with pride in having rejected temptation. ;) That was so smart of you not seeing the third part of Matrix. I wish I had taken the blue pill that one time. :D

A clarification of my motivation is in order. I see myself almost in the minority here. I don't want to go there in hopes of finding an ideal world. I'm perfectly aware that ME is as full of villains as our world is. I just want a taste of that experience. It won't be better, but granted, it will be different.

[Diamond18]

I don't want to go there in hopes of finding an ideal world. I'm perfectly aware that ME is as full of villains as our world is. I just want a taste of that experience. It won't be better, but granted, it will be different.

Very true. I myself would love to be able to visit Middle-Earth for a time (maybe not Mordor), but Sharon put that "you shall not go back" stipulation in there to make it a more weighty decision. For me that one catch changes it into a matter of foresaking this world forever, and I don't plan on doing that in this life. ;)

Now I wonder -- (and forgive me for posing a new question in your thread, Sharon...)

If you were a person who would, on your own, chose the Right, would you go Left after all if someone you loved was going there and begged you to come with? I mean, if someone you really, really don't think you can live without is bent on going to Middle Earth, how would you react?

I've seen people saying they'd go to Middle Earth and bring so-and-so with them, or would stay because so-and-so wouldn't want to go. But what if you were so-and-so?

Not sure I'd go.... But them I am single so the question is purely hypothetical for me. ;)

[PaleStar]

Time has passed, and I've actually thought over this whole thing again; right or left?
I'm still leaning towards left; heck, I'd muck out stalls in Rohan if it just meant being on Middle Earth; but...the thing is, even the short period of time that we'd be there, M-E would be starting on it's way to being like our world is; industrialized to the brink of insanity. I always assumed that, after Aragorn left to die, that there was peace for a while, and then the Men, like we so often do, went back and saw all that machinery that the enimes(orcs, in this case) used and adapted it for their own. We do that today; the A-bomb was made because the US was told that Germany was making one.
It'd be especially heart-breaking to watch the hobbits dissapate and fade from existance...
But, like Alda, this gift from Illuvatar might be made easier by seeing M-E...I think I'll join him(I've actually quoted him there...*soft laughter* sorry)
Yes, it would be hard to keep knowledge of technology and all that a secret but...I suppose after a while you'd forget about it. If you don't remember it, you can't miss it, can you?
But, Araréiel, when you plan that trip, let me know. I intend on coming, if I can.

P.S. I still would like to direct everyone's attention to Alda's post; he's simply wonderful with his response; I was considering right until I reread his post...*gives Alda a hug*

P.P.S. The theory of Middle Earth being Heaven is wonderful; there's a piece of me screaming that it's truth; I truly hope so...but it wouldn't be the M-E we all know; there would be no conflict, like, let's say, someone like Melkor had never existed, or had been bested and locked away. Perhaps it would seem more like Valinor than Middle Earth

[The Elusive Spirit]

PaleStar, I agree with you whole-heartedly. I expect industrialization to follow Aragorn's reign. Time flows, and as the elves know, there's noting you can do to stop it. Going back to that time is, in my mind anyway, going back to what Middle Earth was supposed to be like. Evil villains and all.

My decision to go left is based on one major idea. I'm all about seeing and experiencing everything I can before I take Illuvatar’s gift.

[PaleStar]

PaleStar, I agree with you whole-heartedly. I expect industrialization to follow Aragorn's reign. Time flows, and as the elves know, there's noting you can do to stop it. Going back to that time is, in my mind anyway, going back to what Middle Earth was supposed to be like. Evil villains and all.

My decision to go left is based on one major idea. I'm all about seeing and experiencing everything I can before I take Illuvatar’s gift.


My, I seem to have found myself a compatriot! Thank you for agreeing with me, Elusive; but it was originally Alda's words that made me rethink it.
But I quote it because it's true; who cares what happens? We're human, we'll probably die before any real huge change comes to Middle Earth, and I, like Elusive and Alda, plan on making the best of what we're given until the time comes to accept Illuvatar's gift whole-heartedly.

[Alda]

Thank you Pale Star, I am flattered you enjoyed my post. :o

It seems there are quite a few of us who, if given the chance wouldn't hesitate to enter Tolkien's world. Our only problem it seems is getting there.......

In another fantasy world inhabited by wizards and little people, the great wizard found a wonderfuly ingenious way into the realm. A Balloon!

I was thinking if we all pile onto my swelled head, perhaps we could float to Middle-Earth! We might at least make it over the rainbow. :p

[PaleStar]

Aw, your head's not that big..*gives Alda a hug*
Yes, let us all pile onto a balloon and float into space...and beyond. I'll sign up right now; that is, if no one minds me singing Tolkien songs and 'The Rainbow Connection'... :D

And Alda, I'm flattered that your flattered.That's possibly the greatest compliment; to have people be inspired by your words. :cool:

[Encaitare]

Left, without a doubt. I'd do it in a second, and then become a minstrel in the courts of Gondor... or something like that. As long as I can take my family and closest friends with me it'll be great.

[Morsul the Dark]

I would go left and go to live in hobbiton or Bree bacause I'd fit in more and I'd bring My best friend with me because he knows nothing and we must teach him! he didn't even know there was a hobbiton

[Laitoste]

After more thought, and after the experiences of my most recent trip, I would stay here. There's so much that needs to be done here! While I may not be happy in my current location (I never should have visited Wyoming. It's too much like my old home in Idaho, and I miss the mountains and sagebrush and desert :rolleyes: There's too many people in Wisconsin, and too many trees), I wouldn't leave my family or my home behind.

[Diamond18]

... and too many trees

I guess you wouldn't be settling in Fangorn or Mirkwood then, eh? ;)

[Laitoste]

I guess you wouldn't be settling in Fangorn or Mirkwood then, eh? ;)
Apparently not...you can't see enough of the sky with so many trees! Although they are pretty...

[Isowen]

hmmmm....tough one but I think I'd go for the door on the left. Too may problems in "the real world" plus I love Middle-earth and it would be great to meet Gandalf and the rest of the company of the ring. I think I would do as Gollum did and wonder around Middle-Earth for 75 years or so, just so I could see everyhting. I'm not sure who I would take. I think I'd rather just go by myself! I couldn't live without my laptop though, because then how would I get onto this forum?!?! :D

[Child of the 7th Age]

It's been a long time since this thread was dredged up. I always enjoy seeing what newer posters say or if anyone has changed their mind.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

hmmm my main consern would be if the persons I took with me to ME would want to leave this world. . . I cannot make my mind up! argh curse you Child, you have made my brain hurt.

[Formendacil]

hmmm my main consern would be if the persons I took with me to ME would want to leave this world. . . I cannot make my mind up! argh curse you Child, you have made my brain hurt.

As long as you pick Barrow-Downers, that should be a non-concern. :p

[Eonwe]

I would take my brother Drew with me. I would jump up, run to the down, bow to the omnipoten She, and step confidentally through!

Where would we go? First off, we would hunt around and get oriented. Then we could make a couple choices.

a. Elrond in Imladris
b. Rangers in The Shire
c. Gondor
d. Grey Havens (but who really what's to enter the service of Cirdan in the Third Age?)

I would most likely opt for Rangers, or Elrond. Of course, we could always free style adventure it...maybe follow the route of Bilbo, and enter the service of the King of Dale.

...
...
...

sigh... :(

[The 1,000 Reader]

I'd kill the gatemaster guy and go home, since this sort of thing has been whored endlessly in fanfiction, which I hate.

Looking back, I'd go through the right portal since Middle-Earth isn't my world and I can be more successful here anyway.

[Farael]

Have you ever felt like you were born a few hundred years too late? Today a man's word is worth little more than the air he spends when saying it. Love is either a tool to sell things or a myth, but nothing else. There is no time for one to stop, calm down, unwind and enjoy life for the joy of life itself... unless one doesn't mind falling behind on everything else that makes up daily life. And no, I might sound like a hipocrite... but while I would enjoy the pleasures of a simple life, since that is no longer possible on today's society (even the "simplest" of people are more complicated than what I want) I much rather keep up with the times.

I imagine myself a gentleman. I take pride in keeping my word, and I do believe that love is more than a tool for marketing-types to sell more things or a bunch of rampaging chemicals in our brains. I believe that there is "good" and "bad" and while as always, there are some shades of grey, they are not as ample as some people seem to think. I believe that good actions are worth it for themselves, even what you might call a 'sacrifice', that wouldn't really be so, because of the satisfaction of knowing that you have spent your life in something meaningful.

Sometimes I've wished I lived in the middle ages. Of course it would have been a seriously bad time for me given my ancestry (let's just say that my people weren't exactly loved in most places) but I sometimes fancyed myself sitting on the court of some king or another... or heck, sitting on the throne itself!

Yet my little realistic devil always interferes "Hey man.. you know that that is not how they really lived, right?"

But the offer you are making here is different... far different! You are telling me that I could go live in an ideal world... a fantasy world!. A wold where men like Aragorn, Theoden, Eomer... even Boromir lived! A world where I could just loose myself in unexplored forests, and also a world where I could perhaps even learn how to ride and how to fight and dedicate my life to saving others. Or perhaps I could lead a simple life like Farmer Maggot... have my own little farm and from time to time venture into the old forest. Or I could just dedicate my life to travelling? if I'm lucky, I might just run into some elves, or find Rivendell, or if not at least one or two Dunedain.

A world where all these things that I believe in are more than an ideal... are a way of life. Sure, no computers... and yeah, I live on a steady diet of Advil and Tylenol (although since in ME I'd expect to do more physical work my back pain should get better... once I go through the "omg I can't move" stage) but I'd give everything I own and everything I know for a chance to experience Middle Earth. Sure, I might not live past my 60th birthday and die of a disease that penicillin would cure... or maybe I'd just get my neck kindly relieved of the burden of my head by an orc only a year after getting to Middle Earth.

But if it was even for a day, it would be a day worth a lifetime of dreams. And if I was blessed enough to live to old age in ME, then I could think back and say "well... perhaps I belonged here all along".

[ninja91]

I will help the 1000 reader kill the gatemaster, and then I would be able to go where ver I feel like. But if you want me to be serious... I would go left. Only if I wasnt as helpless as I am in my universe. (Wait a second, I forgot that I am a ninja) :rolleyes:

[Galadriel]

Wow. As much as I am in love with Middle-earth and all its characters, I would choose going back home. Because there are certain things in this world I wont find there. My best friend, my mother, my education (something I will NOT give up), my books...
However, if there was I way I could possible finish college and get a job in ME, and transport all the people I love there (along with my books lol), I'd definitely go to ME.

[Galadriel55]

Definitely ME. Of course, I will miss Mark Twain, Jack London, Margaret Mitchell, Alexandra Ripley, and all other of my favourite writers, but Tolkien beats them all.
I guess I'd prefer to be one of the rangers, but on a second thought everyplace seems great.

[xMellrynxMaidenx]

I was faced with this same decision, actually, when a few friends and I were discussing ME. Some have already said this or had similar thoughts to it, but if a portal were to be dropped in your bedroom...well, everything does happen for a reason. Maybe choosing ME is YOUR course in life. We have to make decisions sometimes that is new and mysterious, IE leaving the nest when we're adults.


That being said, I know eventually whether I want to or not, I'm going to leave home anyways no matter what world I choose. It's in my nature to do so; I'm a nomadic type of person, I love exploring new places. This, for me, would be opportunity knocking; to explore the very world I've dreamed of traipsing across since I was a kid. I hunt; yes, I go bow hunting. Even at my young age I've lived without electricity and have lived off the land. I know the basics of house keeping. Could I survive? I'd like to say I could, and in reality I may scrap by, but one thing I'm NOT use to hunting is Orcs. ;) That's where I would just love to call Imladris my home that way should any Orcs happen to come up with the idea of shish-Ka bobbing me, I'll sick Elrohir and Elladan on 'em! :p

I know enough Elvish to get by, so I would fair well with the elves. My bow skills, however, are not NEAR as good as their own, though.

With every action though, there is consequences. We would know what would happen next given we knew what event was happening exactly. Some would think, "Hey, this is an advantage though, right?" It very well could be. But then again, how many of us are truly prepared to go to war WITHOUT the technology and weapons we have in today's military? It was kill or be killed; it still is, really, but I would say it was much darker and graver back then.

That being said, I would sadly have to choose our world. *sigh* If you would have said, oh say, the Fourth Age where there was no war (that we know of) I would have chosen the ME door.

But...IF I had chosen the ME door instead of our world I would take no one; there WAS a war going on after all, and I would much rather have my family in our own dimension as safe as safe can get. I would LOVE to live in Lothlorien...just to see the Mellryn! I wouldn't mind seeing Lord Celeborn or the Lady Galadriel either, but I REALLY would love to see those trees ;)

I would go so far as to say humans could live in Rivendell. Didn't the Dunedain chiefs retire there? Or their sons were fostered there...I can't remember :\ Someone please refresh my memory.

Hobby wise, I would most definitely be at home in Rohan. I am extremely keen on the equine nature, having raised a few myself.

Ah decisions, decisions.

“Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”-Kerri Russell

[Galadriel55]

I'm not as adventerous as you, Mellrynx, or as adapted to survival in such a world, but I still would choose ME without a second thought. If I'll regret it later, well, I can't undo it. I've always had this...romantic? streek in me and it always bothered me with dreams about living in different places, times, cultures, etc.. Moreover, I never particularly liked this world, except for my family and my books and my closest friends. I'm not that attached to it. Plus, it would be fascinating to learn from all the different people of ME, wouldn't it? And imagine popping up there in the middle of the story. You could predict to characters what they're thinking! What I wouldn't do is meddle at the times when I could actually change the story. That would be dangerous.
I'd choose to be a Dunedain (as much as a girl could be one). They are my favourite characters. I think it would be a good start to get a Dunedain teach you the basics of survival in ME.

The chieftains were brought up in Rivendell.

[Durelin]

Y'all are too romantic. I'm staying here. Modern medicine, coca cola, trains, planes, and automobiles, and yes, computers...lots of places to see and people to know. The evils of both worlds are equivalent enough, I suppose.

And, ya know, I'm a woman. I'll stay here and enjoy the modern comforts of more relative equality and childbirth I'm more likely to survive. Not that every woman has that here and now, but I do.

[Galadriel55]

Well, 5/8 things that you've listed could be considered today's evil.
I'm a woman too, but that doesn't take out the "romantic streak" out of me.