I choose to embrace my geek side. If that bothers you, it’s probably best to stop reading now. It’s only going to get worse.
To date, I have read The
Hobbit in excess of twenty-five times. Each read brings out something different for me. At first, it was just a great story
with heroic characters. Then in
middle school, I saw myself as Bilbo Baggins – a pudgy, timid, character who
had more to offer than anyone expected – including himself. Through that lens the book became
a tale of hope. Each subsequent
reading uncovered some new insight, pearl of wisdom or subtle humor that
further endeared me to the story.
Rereading the book in anticipation of the film release I
discovered sympathy for the character of Thorin Oakenshield. A leader vested with the responsibility
of leading his people, yet a character in pain after suffering a great loss. At his core, Thorin is driven by a
desire for justice and a good heart.
His focus to look out for his company, his team, was so great that it
almost led to their collective demise. Tunnel vision that becomes attachment, which then crosses
into obsession is not all that uncommon in how we operate in the professional
setting. Tolkien calls it the dragon sickness, now we mostly call it
drive or ambition. When infected
by this sickness achieving the objective or completing the mission becomes our
focus – at any cost. Results
matter more than methods.
We are called to do more, to be more. Completing checklists and accomplishing
goals possess no more inherently “bad” qualities than does being rich or successful.
It is in the pursuit of these objectives and conditions surrounding them, which
brings the moral imperative into question.
Author and Aikido Master, Terry Dobson addressed the roots
of this problem in his book Aikido in
Everyday Life.
“There’s nothing wrong with winning, provided that what you
are winning is a contest. The
problem…is that, over the years, we’ve let the win/lose frame of reference
shift into areas of our lives that are not
contests. [We’ve] bought
into an imaginary, arbitrary system where everything’s a contest and there are
no ties—just sudden-death play-offs and a long walk to the showers.”
Within the metaphor of The
Hobbit, Thorin too was blinded by the prize. His focus, his greed, ruined relationships and ultimately
cost him his life – though not without an 11th hour conversion. Whether intentional or not, the story
of the Dwarf-Kings mania speaks loudly as a cautionary tale.
In our own professional lives it’s easy to let one more
project, one more sale, one more case closed, one more patient served drag us
deeper down the rabbit hole. Not
that any of these things are bad, but when their pursuit chokes out others
aspects of our character, ethic and humanity then we really have a
problem.
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