The Gollum Within

I was browsing Youtube for good, old, funny videos and found this hilarious clip from MTV Awards. Gollum won the best animated character and they showed on the screen, Andy Serkis, the man who brought the voice of Gollum to life. While he was making the speech, Gollum came out from nowhere, grabbed the MTV golden popcorn trophy out of Serkis' hands and made a crude speech of his own and making fun of Serkis in the process. See video here.

Lord of the Rings is my most favorite movie of all time and Gollum along with Aragorn and Frodo is one of the most profound characters in the movie. While Aragorn stands for courage of rightfully taking his place as king of Gondor and Frodo stands for "great things come from small packages", Gollum stands for all of us - the basic human nature.

You might be aware of the opposing forces that emerges in Gollum's character. One part of him is under the influence of greed and selfishness as provoked by the power of the ring but one part of him is his proclivity to be good - to be able to trust, to be altruistic and the third one.. this is my favorite.. to be able to lay down his defenses to be vulnerable.

Like human nature, Gollum showed the extreme bad and the hope to be genuinely good and it has a profound meaning on me because I know that a part of me works like a Gollum - the negative self-talk, the pessimism, to wallow in shame that bound me but I know the Smeagol part of me longs to be good, to make things right and to be able a gift to others. In the movie, what made Smeagol reappear despite Gollum's consumation of himself is the compassion of Frodo Baggins. Frodo never called him Gollum but Smeagol, which is his pre-unadulterated self. Frodo did not killed him when he had the chance to but instead he trusted him. What I see in Frodo is a characteristic of God that always pursues us to save us of our fallenness and He is always gracious to make us stand once again when we fall.

Each of us has his own Gollum but God calls the image that He created us to be able to be gifts for others.