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In response to The Daily Post’s Writing Prompt: Silver Screen

Take a quote from your favorite movie — there’s the title of your post. Now, write!

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Boromir (to Aragorn as he lay dying after coveting the One Ring and failing to protect the hobbits): “Forgive me, I did not see it. I have failed you all.”

Aragorn (as he holds him and weeps): “No, Boromir, you fought bravely. You have kept your honor.”

Boromirs death 1bI never expected to learn something important about myself from Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Rings, but Boromir’s words as he lay dying haunted my heart. His confession of failure to Aragorn that he had failed to protect Merry and Pip, and Aragorn’s reply that he had “fought bravely and kept his honor” puzzled me, for Boromir had indeed failed them all.

Pondering those words through 43 viewings of the movie at the theater, their meaning crept slowly into my heart: people are good and bad all at the same time. And though we sometimes fail at our goals, it doesn’t make us failures in our lives.

That insight brought a tremendous amount of emotional healing to memories of my relationship with my mother. I had felt at fault for the difficulties with her most of my life, and then guilty for not being with her when she died. Even seeing a grief counselor didn’t bring me any closer to resolution, closure, and peace.

But this one thing I’ve learned from the movie: all my life I’d done the best I could with what I had. And four years after her death and a lifetime of regrets later, the guilt and sorrow began to slip away.

Not long after that realization I dreamed my mother came to me, hugged me, and kissed my cheek — difficult for her while she lived to say the least. But in that twilight moment I realized she suffered from the same human frailties as Boromir . . . as me.

I’ve finally been able to forgive myself and mom for being human and have moved beyond all the bad memories to the good ones that were lurking behind the grief. What an unexpected blessing to find such deep healing in Middle Earth. It felt as if Peter Jackson had made that movie especially for me.