In JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, some of the last words that the Dwarf King Thorin speaks are to his friend Bilbo, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” The holidays, and Thanksgiving especially, are a time of food and cheer and song. I know that often the world likes to focus on the drama that can arise when family members with different social or political backgrounds or outlooks all come back home for dinner, but I think that most of us would agree with Thorin that if we could all be a little more like Bilbo and focus on the food and cheer and song and less on our hoarded gold or other worldly concerns that so frequently divide us, then the world would indeed be a merrier place. If we look at the story of the Hobbit, we can see that Bilbo’s courageous decision to value food and cheer and song above hoarded gold did indeed make his world a merrier place. Because Bilbo gave up the fourteenth share of the treasure in an attempt to avoid a war between his friends among the Dwarves, Elves, and Men, after the battle of five armies was over, the survivors did not focus on fighting over what shares of the hoarded gold they believed were due to them, but instead shared it among all those who needed it. And even when Bilbo returned to his home with what little of the gold he consented to take with him, he found that he had been declared dead and most of his belongings had been auctioned off and he had to use most of the treasure he brought home to buy back his own things. This may seem like a cruel twist of fate to one who had already given up so much treasure to lose even more of what he had, but Bilbo didn't see it that way. Instead of setting up his own miniature dragon horde within The Shire, he had given it away to all of his friends and family and neighbors, so that the whole shire could have a little more food and cheer and song than usual, and thus be a merrier place. And even when it came time for Bilbo to give away the last and the most precious and also the most dangerous of the treasures he had gotten on his adventures - the ring - he did so during a big party with lots of food and cheer and song and especially of giving away many of his other prized possessions. The dragon sickness of the hoarded gold and even the corrupting influence of the One Ring had no power over Bilbo because he lived every day of his life focused on what mattered most - food and cheer and song, even the day that fourteen strangers showed up at his house uninvited and he fed them all without too much complaint.
