Hello Mark ,
First : I hope that your own rememberings at the funeral you are to attend are the kind of recollections that gently ease , and act as a tonic for the soul .
You mention LotR in your blog ; I wonder how many millions of lives , over the decades , that glorious trilogy has awakened and changed with the power of its sublime story .
For me , it was the multi – coloured , and drug crazed streets of early seventies Amsterdam , where I became intoxicated and addicted to his epic fantasy .
When JRR went AWOL from the horror of the death choked trenches he trudged through , he found solace and escape in middle Earth`s
creation . He did us all the greatest of favours ;he gave us the most splendid of gifts : wisdom of the human condition , hope over despair , and that the smallest and the tiniest actions really do count for something . But for this fan, the LSD enlightened eighteen year old of yesteryear , to the man of today , his greatest gift to me was to share in his original escapism and loose myself in my mind`s imaginings his writing creates .
I`m no writer , just an avid reader . And a gifted writer can wield such power . We all find those authors who change the fabric of our own space – time . I can almost reach double figures with the number of word smiths who have changed my perception of realities and shown me what a true hero is .
Epic heroes live in the genre of fantasy . They always have , since the first tales were told around the earliest fires in the dead of night . These storytellers carry the light that illuminates our imaginations and make us glad to be human .
Never sell your pen or rent it out for sale : keep on dreaming so we can all keep on reading .
I really enjoyed the blog . Ta mate .