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Fiction

Bilbo Theorizes About Wellbeing

Eric Comerford overhears Bilbo and Gandalf discussing happiness.

After all their adventures, having now sailed to the Undying Lands, Gandalf and Bilbo sit on Bilbo’s front porch after dinner, partaking of tea and the occasional puff of pipe-weed.

Bilbo: I was happy, Gandalf – or so I thought – before, by your traps, devices, and designs, you lured me into the quest to claim the Lonely Mountain. I mean, I had everything a hobbit could have or desire, and by all estimates of those esteemed and respectable in our county – whether with a little wisdom or not – I was as good-fortuned and well-grounded as a hobbit could hope to be or ask for. And indeed, I asked for nothing more.

Gandalf: You needed a push, my dear friend, to become more than what you were, but which was always inside you.

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