Holding onto something.

Lord of the Rings ranks up there as one of my favorite books and movies of all time.  It was on a few weekends ago and I turned on "Return of the King" just in time to hear one of my favorite passages from both the book and movie.

Frodo: "I can't do this, Sam."

Sam: "I know, it's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shine it will shine out clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

Frodo: "What were they holding onto, Sam?"

Sam: "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."

Recently, it seems like the world has been filled with violence and hate, anger and frustration. But this made me realize that throwing in the towel isn't an option.  There is some good in the world and we owe it to ourselves and our future generations to work towards finding and harnessing that good. If we all wait for someone else to keep moving forward than we don't believe in fighting for what you believe in.
It may be a hard path, but we all have to find a path to the greater good.