“Its a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

J.R.R Tolkein

I am always amazed to find odd little pockets of somatic insight everywhere, even in one of the most popular novels of all time. A few notes on this passage:

1) Baggins never instructs Frodo not to go out the door, he only warns that it is dangerous. The first thing you do is “you step onto the road,” there is no question that this will come to pass.

2) The only question that arises is of whether or not the traveller will know where it is he will be swept away to. To avoid this ignorance, Baggins advises, “keep your feet.” Stay grounded. In yourself, in to roots of yourself, in the Hobbit’s noble broad base, the feet. Stay aware in the very thing that connects one to the world which will sweep him away.

But, truly the root of the traveller’s self is more than his feet.  It is his intentions that guide the actions of the self, including the feet. By staying grounded in his intentions, the traveller bears some knowledge of where the world is sweeping him, and of his participation in the sweeping journey too.

So lets turn the phrase, “If you keep your feet, there may be some knowing where you might be swept off to.”