You Can't Go Back

"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold." - Frodo Baggins, The Return of the King

Change. Irrevocable change. Transformation. Drastic alteration. Inability to return to the way it was.

This is an important criteria for a good story. When the last page is turned, when the final credits have rolled, I want to know that the characters have been permanently changed. I want to see that there is no possible way for life to go back to the way it was. 

This new state of existence may be better or worse. It may be an improvement on the situation at the beginning - Cinderella marrying her Prince Henry and living happily ever after. It may be heart-wrenching - Sherlock Holmes facing death while battling his mortal enemy. It may be bittersweet - Bilbo and Frodo forever changed by the Ring, leaving Middle-earth to stay in the Undying Lands. 

Of course, being the lovely human being I am, I tend to prefer the latter two types of change. I find the heart-wrenching, gut-punching, tear-jerking forms of change to leave the strongest memory, to have the greatest effect. 

But in the end, no matter what form it takes, change must come.

Staticity is boring, mundane. If characters go through an adventure only to settle back into the same dull routine in the end, what was the point? Why does it matter if nothing changes? 

The same holds true in real life. Living life in a changeless, passive, stagnant manner is meaningless. A life of adventure, exploration, and learning - that is a life that leads to growth. And growth leads to purpose and understanding.

This whole post just took an unintended tumble down the rabbit-hole. But that's okay. In what started out as an analysis of fictional elements led me to realize why I crave adventure in my own life. See? Growth just through typing out a blog-post. It can slip in anywhere if we're open to it.

Where can you grow in your life?


P.S. I've been neglecting this little blog of mine recently; apologies for that. Writing research papers, lab reports, and a novel have hungrily consumed much of my writing energies. As I move into the last six weeks of classes, I hope to find more time for my creative endeavours.

Addendum as of 11:30pm: I decided to throw a little explanation on here as to why I penned this post.

Earlier today I was browsing spoilers for the upcoming season 3 of BBC's Sherlock, which, for those of you who don't know, is an incredible show I adore. It finally hit me - Season 3 is going to be different. Very different. Sherlock's return, the imperative trust issues between him and John, the new character addition - all of these things will necessitate change in this upcoming season. At first I was uncomfortable with this. The show is such a good thing, I hate to see major changes after just six episodes. But the insightful words of Frodo quoted above along with this dialogue popped into my head:

Bilbo: Can you promise that I will come back? 
Gandalf: No... and if you do, you will not be the same.

Bring it, I say. Let's bravely face what changes come our way... both in fiction and in reality.