“He [Bilbo] used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,’ he used to say. ‘You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.’ ”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
OPENING the front cover of a new book is much like opening the front door for a journey down a new road. It comes with the excitement of the unknown before you and even has its own associated smells and sensations. Going on a journey may greet you with the smell of early-morning dew and the brisk air of a new day. Cracking open a book hits you in the nostrils with either the scent of crisp new pages or the fragrance of well-worn sheets of familiar paper that have perhaps had many eyes scroll over the words. In any case, when we begin a journey into a new story, there is something inherently human about following the life of our protagonist and sharing in the imagination of the author.
At Providence, we choose an author every year to celebrate at what we call our Literature Festival. Traditionally, festivals carry with them the idea of feasting, and though we may not indulge in course after course of fine food as one might at a Hobbit feast, or even a regular Hobbit dinner, we do spend a day feasting on the stories and worlds created in the imagination of an author we recognize as an exemplar of great literary artistry. This year, our selection was the well-beloved J.R.R. Tolkien, but in years past we have celebrated authors such as Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Homer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Robert Louis Stevenson in the same spirit. Since the humanities and the great books of the Western Tradition are highly prized here at Providence, we consecrate one day a year to feast on the literary work of one great author as a whole school.
One of the most profound parts of experiencing literature, as a reader or as an author, is the way in which it imitates our creator. God spoke the world into existence, every land, creature, and spirit. Furthermore, God has given mankind the gift of language and even spoken to His people through language. Yet even more miraculously, God incarnate entered into His creation as a man and the central hero of the story He is writing. Though J.R.R. Tolkien falls far short of our God, as all men do, we do get the great privilege of perceiving a shadow of how man bears God’s image as a creator and storyteller. Tolkien is particularly known for his highly detailed world of Middle Earth, his distinctly original characters, and his complex, functional languages that are all part of experiencing his literary masterpieces.
Each year at our festival, families, students, and faculty join together to dress up as our favorite characters, recite our favorite passages and poems from works of the author, and participate in a variety of other activities that unite us around a common love of this great author, recognizing that their work points us to delight in the Author of creation. Our Upper School students even then go on to incarnate some part of the world we read about in the author’s stories, much as God himself came to us in the person of Christ. This year, we had our own Battle for Middle Earth, where each house built their own tower in hopes that it would stand firm after being attacked by other houses [scroll to bottom for photos]. In years past we have had Huckleberry Finn style raft races, Grecian trireme battles, and Sherlock Holmsian Rube Goldberg machines. Each year the older students create something quite real, which takes what was originally imagined by the author and brings it down to earth for all of us to enjoy, mimicking the way in which God revealed his invisible self to us in the body and person of Christ.
In the end, all of these activities are distinctly purposed and driven to cultivate our student’s love for great stories, so that as they grow, they may continue seeing the act of opening a new book, or reopening an old and familiar book, as one of great privilege and wonder. These stories shape us and mold us into the men and women we are becoming, which is why it is important to read and delight in the very best books our culture has to offer, ultimately seeing a reflection of how these great stories are a shadow of the greatest story, written by our Creator and finding its climax on the cross of Christ. As is so vividly put in my opening quote from The Fellowship of the Ring, all of these stories are ultimately offshoots of the primary story arc of God’s redemptive plan for His world, so as we step into a new story, may it sweep us off into the greatest story.
Mr. Chris Buckles has served at Providence since August 2013. He teaches upper school logic, geometry, and rhetoric and also serves as Dean of Academics and director of Shakespeare in a Week. He and his wife, Lindsey, moved to Saint Louis in 2012 and worship at Trailhead Church. They have a toddler son, Scott, and infant daughter, Emilia.
