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   Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 26-Jul-2025 21:15:31 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

   Sketch of the book cover.

   #LordOfTheRings #ClimateCrisis #bookstodon

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 05:39:00 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Water colors are hard. Maybe I'll go back to black and white.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 08:01:49 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     I'm satisfied compositionally. I have some watercolor studies to do before the next attempt.

     #lotr #watercolor

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 27-Jul-2025 21:23:06 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     #Tolkien's #handwriting was excellent.

     https://www.tolkienestate.com/painting/calligraphy/

     #caligraphy

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 28-Jul-2025 05:19:43 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     WIP.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Jul-2025 11:20:27 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Taking a gamble that I can make this work color wise. I want the Ent to be visible, backlit, before a darkened forest. Making the scene sunset increases the outside drama but there needs to be enough light to see the other focus. I'm colorblind and kind of gripping my seat through all of this.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Jul-2025 22:44:41 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     There's "I'm writing a book about The Lord of the Rings" nerdy, and then there's "I've written a geneology of the White Tree of Gondor" level of nerdy.

     #lotr #LordOfTheRings

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Jul-2025 10:19:07 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Deborah Makarios

     @DMakarios agreed

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     Deborah Makarios (dmakarios@theres.life)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Jul-2025 10:19:08 JST Deborah Makarios

     in reply to

     @derek More books should have trees with genealogies!

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Jul-2025 20:22:52 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Left off working on #Isengard and focused on the trees last night.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Jul-2025 21:22:32 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • dynamic_hubzilla

     @dynamic Thank you! :)

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     dynamic_hubzilla (dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu)'s status on Wednesday, 30-Jul-2025 21:22:34 JST dynamic_hubzilla

     in reply to
     @Derek Caelin is writing a book
     
     This is looking great!
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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 31-Jul-2025 11:12:17 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     I finished the cover for "Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement".

     I often think of this image: an Ent looking out over Isengard. What does he think when he sees the industrial site that has destroyed so much of his beloved forest? Does he despair? Does he resolve to act?

     This image is a stand-in, since when the eventual publisher will want to design the cover. But until then this, is as good a representation of the book as I can make.

     #lotr

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 31-Jul-2025 21:25:03 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     How it started -> How it's going.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Aug-2025 23:46:10 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     “As I have begun, so I will go on. We come now to the very brink, where hope and despair are akin. To waver is to fall.”

     #TheLordOfTheRings

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 08-Sep-2025 01:38:48 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     In it's attempts to erase science around climate change, the Trump Administration pulled a climate report that I had cited for my Tolkien / Environmentalist book offline.

     https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/downloads/NCA5_Ch28_Southwest.pdf

     Luckily, I saved a copy. Gotta figure out how to reference it now, though.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 08-Sep-2025 01:42:38 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Speaking of citations, we're looking at more than 240, at the moment. Today's work was to fix all my quotes that should have been block quotes and turn all my various parentheticals, MLA citations, asides, etc, into foot notes.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 08-Sep-2025 01:54:53 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     I need to start promoting the book more. I hesitate, because although I have more than 45,000 words written, I still need to do tons of editing, and I keep finding sections I need to restructure or write altogether.

     It's time, however. I'll share some of the more polished sections, under the assumption that things will change over time.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 13-Sep-2025 02:25:31 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     I've experimented with third-party websites to promote my book, but I figure, 99% of my engagement and feedback has been on the #fediverse.

     So I've made a website for "Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement": https://derek.caelin.cloud/roots/

     And hooked it up with #ActivityPub: @Roots

     Please follow along.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 03-Nov-2025 01:11:49 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Just discovered at 47,000 words that somehow LibreOffice has messed up my citations. Quotes from Aldo Leopold have been attributed to Tolkien's "Letters". I've got 260+ citations to fix. 😬

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 03-Nov-2025 01:13:54 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Luckily I have a backup about 2 weeks old... should be able to reference that. Thank goodness for backups!

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 03-Nov-2025 23:13:31 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     #Zotero is surprisingly satisfying to use. 🤔

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Nov-2025 00:34:30 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Oh my god. You can record quotes IN ZOTERO?

     Game changer. I should have been doing this 47,000 words ago.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 03:49:54 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Boy, that escalated quickly!

     #bookstodon

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 01-Dec-2025 08:19:13 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     I've gone through all of @Roots and repaired the broken citations!

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 04-Jan-2026 23:41:02 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     From the Global Alliance of the Rights of Nature:

     “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

     ― R. Buckminster Fuller

     https://www.garn.org/rights-of-nature/

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 05-Jan-2026 00:18:32 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Cool timeline on people using the rights of nature legal theory over the past twenty years: https://celdf.org/rights-of-nature/

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 19-Jan-2026 22:22:53 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     This won't end up in the book, but I've been thinking about Legolas' and Gimli's relationship.

     By the end of the story they are inseparable friends, but they remain very dissimilar.

     Gimli drags Legolas to the Glittering Caves of Aglerond, and Legolas hauls Gimli through Fangorn Forest. Neither loves the experience that the other has chosen, but they like each other so much that they will go along with the other's experience.

     I've been married long enough to know: this is true love. 😂

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 23:40:51 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Can confirm the "deeper" meaning is alive and well at the town level.

     “Contemporary use of the word #sustainability is ambiguous, with conceptual confusion leading to definitions of sustainability that have been “hijacked and robbed of its substance” This definitional confusion is essentially due to two levels of usage; the first (or shallow) meaning is “long lasting”, the second (deeper) is a “political concept incorporating ecological, economic and social dimensions” https://1library.net/us/download/888078987592761349

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     Adam Greenfield (adamgreenfield@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 23:47:10 JST Adam Greenfield

     in reply to

     @derek I’d agree, but also caution that very often folks who *think* they’re invoking the latter seem to mean “BAU but with wind turbines and balcony solar” when pressed. I’m not unsympathetic — imagining-otherwise isn’t easy, and gets much harder the more embedded in consensual normalcy one is — but it’s a real stumbling block to articulating genuinely different arrangements of power.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 23:54:07 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Adam Greenfield

     @adamgreenfield I think you're right. I still haven't read enough, but the big divide in the environmentalist movement seems to be whether it's possible to achieve "sustainability" (in the shallow sense) without radically restructuring our society.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jan-2026 23:56:31 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Adam Greenfield

     @adamgreenfield Well, I guess that's too simple. I'm reading a dissertation on deep ecology and the lit review shows a bunch of people throwing out critiques on where the dividing line is. Interesting and exhausting.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 22-Jan-2026 00:01:16 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Feast your eyes on "Table 2.1. Location of deep ecology in the ideology landscape" from William Smith.

     https://1library.net/us/download/888078987592761349

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     Adam Greenfield (adamgreenfield@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 22-Jan-2026 00:05:17 JST Adam Greenfield

     in reply to

     @derek Couldn’t agree more, in both respects! Especially when some of the propositions that constitute “deep sustainability” offend my sensibilities for other reasons, often quite elementally.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 23-Jan-2026 23:03:25 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     Welp. Definitely have to add more on the modern environmentalist movement to the book. I need to tie Tolkien's thoughts and actions to the modern discussion.

     I don't want to write a comprehensive dissertation (there are already so many) of environmental philosophy - whatever comes out needs to be distilled.

     I think the touch points have to be "relationship with nature", and "whither society", and "action".

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 23-Jan-2026 23:07:53 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     I've been reading Barbara Tuchman recently (she of "The Guns of August" and "The Zimmerman Telegram). Reminded that her compelling brand of history emphasizes people as characters. The events of history are draped across the characters like cloth on tentpoles.

     One thing I can do to distinguish history from academic texts is to place more emphasis on the people, their personalities, and their ideas.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 23-Jan-2026 23:22:27 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     There is an obvious tension in tying modern environmental activism to a text written nearly 90 years ago.

     Any sketch of modern environmentalism must include a discussion of the actors who try to work within capitalism.

     But The Lord of the Rings was a work of its own era, exploring themes of stewardship and the personhood of nature. It didn't have much to say about the financialization of sustainable development, or, say, the concept of "ecosystem services".

     Maybe I just focus on the delta.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 02:14:49 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     Part of the environmentalist divide is over the relationship between humans and nature. Do we operate from an ecocentric or anthropocentric one? Tolkien's heroes are "stewards" in the Chrisitian model: belonging to a hierarchy of care for Middle-earth, exercising dominion on behalf of nature. Ecocentric worldviews emphasize that humans exist within a system and must play a positive role.

     On the surface, both ideologies favor care for nature. But they can result in divergent outcomes.

     @Roots

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     Adam Greenfield (adamgreenfield@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 02:22:52 JST Adam Greenfield

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     @derek @Roots I am coming to believe that how we construct the interface of nature and culture is among the most significant questions we can pose. In that respect, a few folks here recently suggested I pick up a framework I hadn’t worked with for awhile, Murray Bookchin’s opposition of “first” and “second” nature — it may be helpful here?

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 04:19:52 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Adam Greenfield

     @adamgreenfield I haven't read that particular Bookchin, onto the list it goes! Thanks for the recommendation.

     I've read some other Bookchin, though. He's the rep of "social ecology", and this vision of small, low-impact, decentralized, sustainable and egalitarian societies. You mentioned 'BAU' earlier; Bookchin and Ted Trainer are about as far from status quo as you can get.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 04:21:36 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Adam Greenfield

     @adamgreenfield what was it like getting published through Verso? They're on my list to contact

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     Adam Greenfield (adamgreenfield@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 04:32:08 JST Adam Greenfield

     in reply to

     @derek Honestly, my experience was hugely atypical: they came to me after they’d seen my self-published book “Against the Smart City” in 2013, and proposed doing something together. That book became “Radical Technologies,” then we did “Lifehouse,” and now we’re working on a third.

     It’s been wonderful, the whole way. I’ll never not be grateful.

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     Adam Greenfield (adamgreenfield@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 04:44:58 JST Adam Greenfield

     in reply to

     @derek I develop Bookchin’s ideas on the assembly at some length, and explore their influence in places as different as Rojava and big-city Spain, in the third section of “Lifehouse,” Collective Power.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 11:51:38 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Deborah Makarios

     @DMakarios Yes, I agree! A steward who prioritizes self over the thing stewarded is no longer a good steward.

     And in the Tolkien universe, the good/bad steward dichotomy continues. Denethor is a bad steward because he became enamored of the power that came with it, and placed himself and his own dignity above the wellbeing of his people.

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     Deborah Makarios (dmakarios@theres.life)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 11:51:40 JST Deborah Makarios

     in reply to

     @derek The key point in the stewardship model is who you are the steward of, because it is incumbent on the steward to act in accordance with the values and intents of the Lord.
     A steward who maximizes profits at the cost of environmental destruction is only going to be accounted a good steward if they serve a Lord who values money but not the environment.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 22:57:36 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Deborah Makarios

     @DMakarios 💯

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     Deborah Makarios (dmakarios@theres.life)'s status on Sunday, 25-Jan-2026 22:57:38 JST Deborah Makarios

     in reply to

     @derek Denethor is a classic example, but a steward doesn't even have to prioritize self to be unfaithful to their charge. They just need to prioritize their own idea of what is good over their lord's.

     I seem to recall C S Lewis having something to say about the dangers of being oppressed by a person who's convinced they're doing what's best for you, because they will never give up. Something similar could be said of stewards who are convinced they're looking after their lord's best interests.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 01-Feb-2026 00:25:08 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     Hooray for Better World Books! I have a copy of "Deep Ecology" by Bill Devall and George Sessions (1985). This was an early work that outlines the Deep Ecology platform.

     @Roots isn't too focused on philosophy and theory, but any discussion of the modern environmental movement has to address the "how" and "for what" of the struggle. I've wanted to read Deep Ecology because it's supposed to be focused on the first part: the ontology of environmentalism.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Friday, 13-Mar-2026 01:40:22 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     Book update: February was a busy month, and frankly, I've been burnt out. But I took a few days off work and have been spending time on @Roots.

     Today I revised the introduction to trace the book as it ended up.

     Remaining sections to write:
     - Christian Stewardship and Stewards in LOTR
     - Ecocentrism and the debate within environmentalists about how we should structure society
     - Agriculture and Entwives

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Sunday, 24-May-2026 00:00:50 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     @Roots slowly chipping away at @Roots. Just started the intro to the Christian Stewardship section. Thanks to Pope Leo for giving a nice modern illustration:

     "Too many in our world refuse to acknowledge what both science and the Church plainly teach, that we bear a solemn responsibility for the stewardship of our planet and for the welfare of those who dwell upon it, especially the most vulnerable, whose lives are imperilled by the reckless exploitation of both people and the natural world.”

     https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-vatican-observatory-foundation-science-faith.html

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 30-May-2026 20:58:00 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     #Pope Leo XIV quotes #Gandalf in his Encyclical letter on #ai.

     "213. The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” [187] The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization."

     https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

     I was already going to cite Leo in
     @Roots about Christian stewardship. Was not expecting the pope to come up so frequently.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 04-Jul-2026 22:23:14 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     "Similarly, good actions by those on the wrong side will not justify their cause. There may be deeds on the wrong side of heroic courage, or some of a higher moral level: deeds of mercy and forbearance. A judge may accord them honour and rejoice to see how some men can rise above the hate and anger of a conflict; even as he may deplore the evil deeds on the right side and be grieved to see how hatred once provoked can drag them down."

     #Tolkien reacting to W.H. Auden's review of The Return of the King, Letters, pg 243

     Not likely to make it in to @Roots, but I love this quote.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 04-Jul-2026 23:23:52 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     I gave up trying to find a good Pope quote on Mercy. Obviously popes have plenty to say on this theme (hello again, Pope Francis) but I wanted to get something from a Tolkien contemporary and it was a rough job. Pius XI (1922-1939) had a lot to say about the evils of socialism. Pius XII was big on nuclear disarmament. In the end I thought Tolkien himself make a great interpretation of his faith (more direct, at least).

     @Roots

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 04-Jul-2026 23:25:15 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     • Where the Roots are Long: The Lord of the Rings and the Modern Environmentalist Movement

     "[Simple minds] do not perceive the complexity of any given situation in Time, in which an absolute ideal is enmeshed. They tend to forget that strange element in the World that we call Pity or Mercy, which is also an absolute requirement in moral judgement (since it is present in the Divine nature). In its highest exercise it belongs to God. For finite judges of imperfect knowledge it must lead to the use of two different scales of 'morality'. To ourselves we must present the absolute ideal without compromise, for ...if we do not aim at the highest we shall certainly fall short of the utmost that we could achieve. To others, in any case of which we know enough to make a judgement, we must apply a scale tempered by 'mercy': that is, since we can with good will do this without the bias inevitable in judgements of ourselves, we must estimate the limits of another's strength and weigh this against the force of particular circumstances."

     @Roots

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 20-Jul-2026 21:38:00 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     By a series of fumbling clicks and button presses I somehow found myself listening to #zotero read aloud "The Letters of J.R.R. #Tolkien" and #65daysofstatic and, tbh, there have been worse mashups.

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     Derek Caelin is writing a book (derek@social.coop)'s status on Monday, 20-Jul-2026 21:40:07 JST Derek Caelin is writing a book

     in reply to

     "What I intend to say is this: I cannot substantially alter the thing. I have finished it, it is 'off my mind': the labour has been colossal; and it must stand or fall, practically as it is."

     Letters of JRR Tolkien, 1951