Audra Weaver

Curiosity hasn't killed me yet. Mental health advocate, history fanatic (esp. WW2 social psychology), avid reader, science fiction geek, & yarn addict.

[Wholesome Side of 𝕏 @itsme_urstruly]

ngl reading literature is one of the most underrated tools for mental health.

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

Tom Bombadil is the most mysterious character in The Lord of the Rings.

He's the oldest being in Middle-earth and completely immune to the Ring's power — but why?

Bombadil is the key to the underlying ethics of the entire story, and to resisting evil yourself...

Tom Bombadil is an enigmatic, merry hermit of the countryside, known as "oldest and fatherless" by the Elves. He is truly ancient, and claims he was "here before the river and the trees." He's so confounding that Peter Jackson left him out of the films entirely.

This is understandable, since he's unimportant to the development of the plot. Tolkien, however, saw fit to include him anyway, because Tom reveals a lot about the underlying ethics of Middle-earth, and how to shield yourself from evil.

The hobbits meet Bombadil early on in their quest, before they reach Bree and the Prancing Pony Inn. He rescues Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow, and invites the hobbits to stay at his house in the Old Forest.

There, the hobbits realize something strange about him: the Ring has no power over Bombadil whatsoever.

When he wears it, he remains visible. He treats it as a plaything, making it disappear with a magic trick. Indeed, at the Council of Elrond, Gandalf rejects the idea of giving the Ring to Tom, for he would likely misplace it or forget about it entirely.

So just who is he, exactly?

When Frodo asks this very question to Tom's wife Goldberry, she simply responds "He is." It's a cryptic answer that echoes God's famous answer to Moses in the Book of Exodus: "I am who I am."

Thus, many theorize that Bombadil is God, some kind of angelic being, or even the spirit of the Music of the Ainur (due to the fact that he is constantly singing). But Tolkien's letters reveal something considerably more interesting…

In April 1954, Tolkien wrote:

"The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship… but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control.But if you have, as it were, taken a 'vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself… then the questions of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless…"

So, Bombadil is a representation of what it means to take pure delight in the world around you — to experience people and things simply as they are, without any thought for what they could be or how you could use them. And this is why the Ring has no power over him.

To Bombadil, the One Ring is simply a ring, and the possibilities of what can be achieved through its power are of no importance. He is able to resist its evil precisely because he is entirely content with the world around him.

At the end of the story, having accomplished what he set out to do in Middle-earth, Gandalf pays Tom a visit before returning to the Undying Lands:

"I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time."

If Bombadil is the epitome of simply enjoying life and being, Gandalf is the epitome of doing. He guides the hobbits, fights the Balrog, and runs up and down Middle-earth to help destroy the One Ring.

But now that he's finally liberated from doing, he immediately heads to Bombadil's. He does so with a sense of relief, as if he's at last able to access a purer and higher mode of being — a sort of innocence that cannot be fully experienced by those consumed by doing.

Of course, by this Tolkien doesn't disparage the value of action. The entirety of LOTR displays the importance of rising up against evil, even in the face of all odds. But with the inclusion of Bombadil, he does remind readers that fighting isn't all there is.

Bombadil reminds us that while it's important to strive and *do*, it is just as important to occasionally step back and *be*. Indeed, your ability to do so plays a crucial role in helping you resist the allure of evil…

Read the full piece here:

https://t.co/aqK2daehIL

The unsung hero of The Lord of the Rings...

[Jeremy @jeremyct]

My mom paid off her house in 2003.

Thought that was it. Thought she was done. Thought it was finally hers.

Property taxes were $1,800 a year back then.

She’s retired now. Fixed income. Same house. Same neighborhood.

Property taxes are $24,000 a year.

That’s $2,000 a month.

On a house she already paid for.

She’s 71 years old and the government sends her a bill every year just to stay in her own home.

You never really own anything in America.

You just make payments to a different landlord.

[Gina Milan @ginamilan_]

Zac Brown isn’t apologizing for performing at Sunday’s UFC event at the White House 👏🇺🇸

“I’m there for the troops, man. I’m there to honor America. This is patriotism, not politics for me. I mean, fuck all the division. I don’t believe in that. I love this country. I love all the people that have sacrificed so that I can live my American dream and that everyone that lives here gets a chance to do that if they work hard and make the right decisions. So it doesn’t have a place in politics for me.”

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

Apparently, tariffs, like borders, work.

Trump was right…again.

[Sassafrass84 @Sassafrass_84]

Hey, I am completely down for this. As it should be. Am I right?

[Wesley Hunt @WesleyHuntTX]

Austin Metcalf is dead.

Let’s stop dancing around the obvious.

Austin Metcalf received the death penalty.

Karmelo Anthony received 35 years.

One of them lives.
One of them gets a gravestone.

Save the faux outrage.

The real victim in this case is NOT the convicted killer.

The real victim is the young man who will never come home again and the family that will spend the rest of their lives grieving a loss that can never be undone.

This was a track meet.

A place for competition, teamwork, and sportsmanship.

NOT violence.
NOT murder.

And spare us the racial narratives.

Murder is wrong regardless of the race of the victim or the perpetrator. Any decent society should be able to agree on that.

Austin Metcalf lost everything.

His family got a life sentence of grief.

And while some are busy turning this tragedy into a racial debate, the Metcalf family is looking at the empty chair at the dinner table and remembering who actually paid the highest price.

Austin Metcalf got the death penalty.

Never forget that.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

I’ve been informed by folks on this site that The Hobbit and now Jane Austen are too difficult for teens. I can’t stress enough how condescending this is to teenagers. You’re taking away all the things that might bring them joy and leaving them with no pastimes but scrolling.

[Library of Congress @librarycongress]

The Committee of Five—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman—was appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago today.

Jefferson's draft of the document is here at the Library, and will be featured in a new exhibition opening July 3.

[Blue Lives Matter @bluelivesmtr]

Never thought we'd see this from a far-left law professor. Here's Donte Mills weighing in on the Karmelo Anthony case:

“I think the law worked here … You can’t turn a shove into a stabbing … I think in this case the jury got it right.”

The only thing the court got wrong was the sentence. He should have gotten life without parole.

[Darren of Plymouth @DarrenPlymouth]

“I never thought I’d live to see the day when the right wing would become the cool ones giving the middle finger to the establishment, and the left wing becoming the snivelling self-righteous twats, going around shaming everyone.”

- John Lydon, The Sex Pistols

[Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith]

When a white person does something wrong: “Your entire ancestry and race must share in the responsibility for what you did.”

When a non-white person does something wrong: “They’re only an individual, you can’t blame an entire group!”

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

I have truly awful news...

A 17-year-old Black male allegedly m*rdered an elderly White couple in their own home in rural Mississippi...

...and then opened fire on 4 sheriff's deputies AND AN INFANT!!!!

He shot at a BABY!!!

Their names were Billy and Virginia Blair. He was 74. She was 71.

They were high-school sweethearts and owned a tire shop together, their pastor called them "the sweetest couple," people who "loved the Lord."

In broad daylight, a 17-year-old broke into their home and m*rdered them both.

Police say the suspect opened fire on FOUR officers... and an INFANT at the scene.

All of them were hit.

By the grace of God, all miraculously survived.

The 17-year-old now faces 13 felonies, including TWO counts of capital m*rder.

A judge denied him bond.

Billy and Virginia Blair survived everything life threw at them for over 70 years...

...only to be murdered in the one place they should have been safest.

Their own home.

Say their names.

Billy and Virginia Blair.

[Daily Gondor 📰 @DailyGondor]

A single radical Uruk-hai blew up the walls, yes. But people attacked the all of the moderate orcs who entered through the breach and who didn't blow anything up. This is Aragorn's Middle-earth.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Murderous migrants beheading innocent people in their home town is what’s making people angry, not “social media”!

[NFL @NFL]

Broncos agree to terms with coach Sean Payton on new five-year contract.

[Bitcoin Teddy @Bitcoin_Teddy]

Bill Maher asks how the government is “failing the poor so badly” when he pays “60 PERCENT” of his earnings in taxes.

“Last week was tax day… I paid the government probably almost 60% of what I earn. That’s a lot.”

“And I… wouldn’t mind if Bernie Sanders would stop saying the rich don’t pay taxes.”

“The top 10% pay 72% of all federal income taxes. And the bottom half, 3%.”

“The Democratic Socialists talk about socialism like we don’t already have a lot: Social Security, unemployment, Medicare, nutritional assistance, Medicaid, Obamacare, disability, housing subsidies.”

“How can you be soaking the rich and failing the poor so badly? How can it be that the federal government alone took in over 5 trillion in taxes last year, and we still need that?”

“Are we really this incompetent and corrupt?”

[Margo Martin @MargoMartin47]

Last night, @POTUS invited the hardworking men who renovated the Reflecting Pool to the Oval Office ❤️

Every man received a signed hat and a presidential challenge coin!

[QThestorm @17QStorm]

BREAKING: Marco Rubio just said the quiet part out loud.

Americans work 40+ years…

Pay taxes.
Follow the rules.
Build the country.

Then retire on $800, $900, maybe $1,000 a month.

Meanwhile, new arrivals can allegedly receive more support from the same system they never paid into.

Read that again.

The people who built America are being pushed to the back of the line.

This is not compassion.
This is a government priority problem.
America First was never just a slogan.
It was a warning.

Who comes first?

The taxpayer… or the system?

[Flopping Aces @FloppingAces]

They turned the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool into a green, leaking eyesore and spent years insisting that was the new normal. Then someone decided it didn’t have to stay that way.

In a matter of months, the water is clear again. The algae is gone. The basin no longer smells like neglect. The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument now reflect off a surface that actually looks like it belongs in a capital city instead of an abandoned drainage project. It didn’t require a revolutionary new philosophy or another layer of bureaucracy. It required treating a pool like a pool and getting it done.

That clarity matters beyond the water itself. For years, the message sent by Washington’s public spaces was that America’s most important symbols were no longer worth maintaining at a basic level. Broken fountains, grimy monuments, and spaces that felt deliberately unwelcoming told citizens their country had moved past caring about its own appearance. The decay wasn’t hidden. It was visible every time someone walked the Mall.

Now the message has flipped. The same institutions that once accepted green water as the cost of progress are suddenly capable of producing clean, reflective water when the priority changes. That speed is the real story. It proves the previous condition was never an unavoidable outcome of history or funding or complexity. It was a decision.

A country that keeps its most iconic public spaces sharp and presentable is telling its people something different than one that lets them rot. It says the inheritance is still worth protecting. The reflecting pool is doing exactly what its name suggests again. It’s showing Americans an image of their capital that looks like someone still believes the country is worth taking seriously.
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