John Miedema

Offworld, Pt. 5, Conclusion to this Theme

Every story deserves a good ending. It need not be a happy ending, but it should be a satisfying ending, providing a sense of completion. After his unexpected adventure in The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins returned to Hobbiton, but the time came to say goodbye to his many friends and relatives. “Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits.” Cheers abound. “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” Dead silence. No one is quite sure if they have been insulted. In the movie version, Gandalf the wizard smiles wryly. Bilbo uses his magic ring to disappear right in front of their eyes, ensuring his legacy as the strangest and most remarkable hobbit in the history of the Shire.

People like good endings in every story except their own, which many wish would go on forever. Futurists like Ray Kurzweil imagine that humans will merge with machines, thus gaining some form of immortality. On the opposite pole, back-to-the-lander Scott Nearing concluded at age 100, his health failing, that he had lived long enough. He chose to stop eating. It was an exceptional and dignified end (Related review).

We assume that human history will go on indefinitely. It is a human bias. Perhaps machine life will replace us as the dominant species one day. But why machines? We have other far more intelligent animal species on the planet. In Ishmael, Daniel Quinn writes of an ape who teaches his pupil critical lessons about humanity:

Man’s place is to be the first without being the last. Man’s place is to figure out how it’s possible to do that — and then to make some room for all the rest who are capable of becoming what he’s become. And maybe, when the time comes, it’s man place to be the teacher of all the rest who are capable of becoming what he’s become. Not the only teacher, not the ultimate teacher. Maybe only the first teacher, the kindergarten teacher — but even that wouldn’t be too shabby. (243, his emphasis)

Perhaps the human story will be shorter than we think, and maybe that is not such a bad thing. What sort of ending will that story have? Shall we resist that end as long as possible, or plan for ending with dignity?

Perhaps it’s just my own mid-life reflection. Maybe things will go on. After all, Bilbo’s story did not end with his goodbye. Nor did it conclude at the end of Lord of the Rings. He sailed off into the Grey Havens with Gandalf and company. Who knows.