A long, long time ago, in a world even my siblings don't remember, my Girl Scout leader taught us this little song, always sung as a round:
Make new friends, but keep the old;
One is silver, and the other gold.
Since my time, additional words have been added, definitely not an improvement. I do hope today's Girl Scouts aren't learning it this way; the skin of my mind crawls just reading it. The original two lines are profound and pithy; the addition, simply ... well, here's a verse for you to judge:
Silver is precious,
Gold is too.
I am precious,
And so are you.
Take that, Gollum.
Which brings me around to the point of this post.
Books are my friends. New books can be silver, but there's true gold in wonderful old books read again and again.
I haven't read The Hobbit since 2014, and I was shocked to discover that the last time I read The Lord of the Rings books was at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. Incredible. My other Tolkien reading goes back to before I started keeping track! As part of my next edition (not yet established) of the 95 by 65 project, I'm including a Tolkien spree, beginning with The Hobbit.
That's where I found these words of wisdom from Gandalf, perfect for those of us who waste valuable sleeping hours fretting about the future.
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I remember that song (with the original words) from Girl Scouts also.
