The Gardener

One of my favorite parts from the Lord of the Rings Films is when Faramir apprehends Frodo and Sam and asks Sam, half in jest, "And what are you? His bodyguard?" Followed by Sam's gruff reply, "His Gardener." This sums up pretty much all you need to know about Sam, whom later Frodo predicted would become "the most famous gardener in history" and after Faramir got to know him a little better, he would admit that where he comes from "gardeners must be held in high honor." When Sam had to briefly take up the One Ring practically on Sauron's doorstep, the corrupting influence of the One Ring could find no purchase on the stout, moss-covered recesses of Sam's Gardener soul. The ring was utterly stymied by Sam's thoroughly unambitious heart and the best it could manage is by tempting him to use the power to turn the blasted and benighted Morgul vale into a beautiful garden. Even Sam could see that this was not the Ring's best effort. "He knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command." (Return of the King, JRR Tolkien). When Sam got back to his Shire, he would find much of its beauty marred by the ravages of war. Many of the trees and plants he loved most had been destroyed. But he still had a gift from the Lady Galadriel, a small box of enchanted soil from her own orchard. Sam could have hoarded this precious gift to ensure that his garden was the finest in all of Middle Earth. But instead, he went to all the parts of the Shire that had been laid waste and sprinkled a few precious grains of soil in each spot, and kept none back for himself. Sam could not be tempted by the Ring because he had no selfish desires in his heart. Any good thing he received he immediately shared out to as many as he could. Sam understood that there was no great pleasure to be had in the finest garden in Middle Earth if it was surrounded by the barren and decrepit husk of a ruined and wasted Shire. Sam was a gardener, and that meant tending to all of the plants and not just one tiny patch. I know that all of us have gifts that the blighted world desperately needs, and I hope that we can follow the example of Sam, the Gardener, and think no selfish thoughts but rather share our gifts as far and wide as we possibly can so that all of the wilderness and desert places can blossom and flourish.