Into the West

[vollmus]

I just finished watching the documentaries, easter eggs, etc included on the extended edition of Return of the King, and my throat is swelled and throbbing as if I'm going to cry. It was at about this time last year that I walked out of the theater and couldn't stop thinking that everything was over, and here I am now, thinking the exact same thing. I keep thinking, I wish I could have been a part of this, and then I realize, again and again, that I have. Between reading the books, studying the appendices, watching the films, browsing the extras, and talking about them all, I have spent countless hours of my life on the Lord of the Rings. If it had been any other way, I wouldn't be this emotional, I wouldn't be thinking that this has truly been the end of an era. No matter how many times I can read everything again, can see everything again, can hear everything again, it will always be the end, and I will always choke up.

When I don't tear up, shudder, sniffle--that is when I will know that the era has finally, fully finished.
I hope that time never comes.