I never make New Years Resolutions. I think they are ridiculous. I never keep the ones I make.

So here are some I’ve made for this year that I fully intend to keep.

1. Start (and stay with) the Body For Life program (paul, and I are trying this together
2. ??
3. Maintain a solid, smooth budget
4. move mattheerema.com into the top 10 on a google search for “Heerema“
5. finish a recording with The Lone Strangers

We’ll see :)

We are off to Faithwalkers for several days. I’ll let you know all about it when we get back (pictures and everything!)

Things I didn’t get done before I left

1. finish Lonestrangers.com and all the blogs on it
2. move my blog, Pat’s blog, and Paul’s blog over to aforementioned web site.
3. hard launch mattheerema.com

Oh well, its not entirely my fault. See ya after the conference!

PAUL JOHNSON got ENGAGED!!!!

If you haven’t read the books several times, there are several huge parts of Return of the King that you will miss.

First of all: going in to the movie I knew there were two scenes, that if left out, would ruin the movie for me. One was a very small flashback (in the books) that was only mentioned in passing but was very key in Aragorn’s character. The other: the last stand outside of Mordor’s gates.

In the movie, those two scenes were masterfully combined into one. The part that most all of you missed was right before Aragorn charged Mordor’s army at the battle of the gates. You heard the eye whispering to Aragorn (Arrrragoorrrn…. sooooomething in ellllllvish….). What you didn’t catch (if you haven’t read the books) was that Aragorn was being given one last chance to surrendur, one last temptation to turn to the dark, and for a split second, he considers it.. then simply turns around, smiles and says “For Frodo.” And charges to certain peril.

In the books Aragorn is at the top of a mountain watching the rising darkness (of Mordor) with Arwen. He turns and says (of the darkness) “I have rejected it utterly”.

This scene speaks to a choice we all have to make at some points in our lives, sometimes we have to make it multiple times. We have this wonderful gift called FREE WILL… and we are able to discern right from wrong. A lot of times the WRONG thing looks a lot better than the RIGHT thing… the ability to choose the right thing (rushing headlong into 10,000 orcs and trolls rather than join with evil) is at the very heart of nobility, and is one of the reasons those two scenes (separate in the book, the same in the movie) are my favorite of the trilogy. Far better than any of Gandalf’s “wisdom” that everyone loves so much.

By far, the character I relate to the most in The Lord of the Rings is Aragorn. Both in the books and in the movies.

He was simultaneously my favorite character in the movies, and my biggest beef with the movies. Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn was far different from Aragorn of the books. In the books, Aragorn is eagerly awaiting the time when he will be able to throw off his disguise as a ranger (which is needed in order to hide the fact that the King’s bloodline is, in fact, still intact) and take his rightful place as King of Gondor (and king of men). In the movies, he is quite different: moody, dark, emotional, and distrustful even of himself. (I find the differences to be quite similar to Jesus as he is found in scripture and in the musical “Jesus Christ: Superstar”. Both are compelling, the musical is fairly accurate, conveys the message… but is different from the original)

Quite honestly, I liked the movie version of Aragorn better. He was easier to relate to. He wore his inner-struggles on his sleeve, and yet was still able to step up at key times and be who he was meant to be (fending off ringwraiths, taking charge at Helm’s Deep, waking the army of the dead and taking over at Pelenor Feilds, leading the charge outside of the gates of Mordor).

The fact that he was so very human, and yet still very much a Hero of epic proportions inspires me.

Who was your favorite character and why?