Sam Wise Gamgee is my favorite literary character. Many of you know Sam because either you have read or seen the film version of Tolkien’s epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings . There is a scene early in The Fellowship of the Rings, where Sam misses home, but gazing over at his friend, Frodo, realizes that he has crossed a Rubicon – a point of no return. Whispering almost to himself, Sam says, “I know the long journey ahead isn’t to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains – those things I thought I wanted. Now I don’t rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.”
What I love about Sam is that he doesn’t know how important his role is in the mission. Often Sam chides himself for being a bumbling, screw up hobbit. He thinks that he’s only putting the mission at risk. Little does Sam know, ironically, that he will be the epic hero of the story.
In graduate school, I studied Tolkien’s version of quest in depth to understand his massive cross-generational appeal. What I discovered is that in Tolkien’s version, a quest involves an underdog protagonist who has been summoned by election (not volition) to a mission with a daunting task. Consequently, to accomplish the mission, the bumbling underdog must rely on a motley gang of friends (think Wizard of Oz) to help him accomplish the task. In other words, the bumbling “I” must depend upon a bumbling “we”. In addition, I discovered, all quests involve risk, uncertainty, and the real possibility of failure. From the outset, then, the protagonist must measure the cost involved, and at many points, take leaps of faith. Usually, only in the end, does the protagonist look back and realize that the hardship and suffering then was worth the joy and celebration now.
I say all this to serve as a backdrop for this basketball season. This week I have summoned the basketball team to join me, along with many other Casady students, on a quest with an epic arc. Our concrete goal is to help raise monies and awareness to provide 1,000 students in Africa with clean, safe water. Many of you who know me and my wife (and our son, Silas) know how dear Africa, and specifically, Ethiopia, are to us. This mission then goes straight to the heart.
The 5 Challenge then is my way of getting this team to participate in a journey of significance. I will let your son explain this challenge and the subsequent mission. But if you would like to learn more and even get involved with us, I’d encourage you to go to http://casady4h2ope.blogspot.com.
In closing, I am reminded of a passage from Victor Frankl’s holocaust memoir Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl’s thesis, forged on the anvil of suffering in a German “death camp”, involved the idea that as human beings, we can live without sex, money, or power, but we can not live without meaning. We exist, in other words, not to ask what life means, but for life to ask us what we mean.
Toward the end of his long meditation, Frankl concludes his memoir with these words:
Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.
My hope and prayer is that every single player, 9th through 12th grade, will discover, like Sam Gamgee, their crucial role for the success of our mission.
To a great journey ahead,
Coach Bottomly
