Geek Wisdom of the Week
httpv://youtu.be/wxN2Mewamj0
By: Victor “Fiefo!” de la Cruz
It used to be that calling someone a geek was a derogatory term. An insult. Something people should be ashamed of. A decade ago, real geeks would have to keep their comic book collection somewhere where no one would find it or hide their copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy behind other books. If they didn’t, they would be ridiculed by others
My, how times have changed…
Now, our knowledge of pop culture is something that other people are in awe of. We were able to identify Thanos during the mid-credits scene of The Avengers. We can actually identify even the minor characters in the Lord of the Rings movies because we have read the books multiple times before it was the “cool” thing to do.
Speaking of which, this week’s piece of Geek Wisdom comes from the films and it comes from our favorite schizophrenic Halfling…
The Quote: “My precioussss…”
The story behind the quote: The Lord of the Rings trilogy books is the epic tale of a band of heroes on a quest to destroy the One Ring by throwing the magical accessory into the fiery maw of Mount Doom. The One Ring grants the person who wears it complete invisibility but it has the side effect of corrupting even a person of strong will.
Unfortunately, Smeagol found it and was a weak willed individual and warped his mind almost instantly. He then became obsessed with keeping the One Ring from himself, going to great lengths to hide himself from the rest of the world. Eventually, the Ring warped not only Smeagol’s mind, but his body as well, turning him into the creature we know as Gollum. Even with all of the extreme changes he experienced, he was still under the thrall of the item’s magic, calling it his “precious.”
The Geek Wisdom we can take from it: Admit it: we can sometimes get really obsessed with our hobbies. Whether it be creating the perfect Magic: The Gathering deck against any situation or trying to outbid someone on eBay for a vintage Star Wars Yak Face figure at the last second, we try our best to make sure what we have is perfect.
This in itself is not bad since it’s always healthy to have a distraction and be proud of what we have. It’s when we let these things take over our lives that it becomes a problem. We should always have some balance in our lives. As with everything in life, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.