The world is not in your books and maps. It's out there.

The Creative Rebellion • Dispatch #008 • 5 min read

When's the last time you went outside for no other reason than to be outside?

No phone, no book, no planned activity. Just you, taking in nature, studying the twisting, reaching branches of trees, feeling the wind against your face, listening to the birds twitter and sing, watching the squirrels leap about, closing your eyes and lifting your head to the sun the feel its warmth...

If you can't remember the last time you did that, do it now. Quit reading this and go.

You have my permission.

I'll wait.

...

If you read ​last week's dispatch​, you know the special place The Lord of the Rings holds in my heart. There's a line from the movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, that isn't in any of the books. (If you've spent any time on TikTok or Instagram Reels, you've probably heard it).

Gandalf says to Bilbo:

The world is not in your books and maps. It's out there.

I love that line, but I also have a problem with it.

First, the reason I have a problem with it:

I believe worlds can be created within books. Within movies. Within songs. Within poetry. Art is a creative medium and its canvas is the human imagination. If we cannot imagine something that we've never seen, then where do new things come from?

Worlds can exist within books and maps.

Just look at Middle Earth itself! Tolkien created an entire world, full of history and language, myth and magic, mountains and Shire, hobbits and elves and dwarves and talking trees. In a way, the line seems to contradict the very thing Tolkien created. But before I get too worked up....

That brings us to why I also love the line:

I love it because I understand the need to get out into the real world.

You could say the line from the movie is an adaptation and/or conglomeration of several different passages from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In fact, there is a passage in The Hobbit that could be summarized with that line of dialogue from Gandalf to Bilbo.

And it's hard to convey internal struggle in a movie, so I get why the writers, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, chose to dramatize this internal scene of Bilbo's as a dialogue:

As [the dwarves] sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. He looked out of the window. The stars were out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in dark caverns. Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water a flame leapt up—probably somebody lighting a wood-fire—and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again.

Here's what I think Tolkien might have been aiming to convey:

Books and maps tell about the world. They can imagine the world beyond our door (or one that does not exist), yet they are still but a shadow of the real thing.

And I think we forget how much we need the real thing.

We have more than books and maps today. We have 4K HD TVs, WiFi, VR, and smartphones. We can travel to distant places, living vicariously through someone else's travel vlog, all from the air conditioned comfort of our own couch.

[Scroll]

Italy

[Scroll]

France

[Scroll]

New Zealand

[Scroll]

Dubai

We live in our houses, in our cars, in our offices, in our own heads. All the while, the world awaits us outside.

Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains,

Books and maps and Instagram Reels should awaken in us a desire to go out. To be discontent with the experiences of others. To put down our phones and take in the things that have existed far longer than any of us. Great mountains. Vast oceans. Giant trees. Fields and clouds and flowers and animals.

Because once we're out there, nature will awaken something within us.

Living inside, we've fallen asleep.

Yet we can't sleep, we can't create, we can't think.

We're stressed and anxious and depressed.

And the endless scroll of social media or infinite streaming options won't fix it.

I realize this is a newsletter about creativity, but we're whole people, and when one facet of the body is sick, the whole body is sick.

Are you creatively stuck?

It might have nothing to do with what you're doing creatively and more to do with your physical environment.

Maybe you need to...

hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves,

If I stay indoors too long my creativity gets stifled. Just going into the backyard inspires me.

When I get my hands in the dirt, I feel centered and grounded.

I’m not a gardener, but I get the sense that if all I had to do is care for plants and till soil, I could be content.

and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

The world awaits. Adventure is calling to you. But you have to go after it. You have to quit looking out the window, load your pack, grab your sword, and go out the door. It's your choice.

and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames.

You can choose to stay inside. Look away from the window and pick your phone back up. Allow images of mountains to substitute for real mountains.

He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again.

Will you choose comfort and stay in, or will you step out and find you've reawakened something inside?

Resistance would prefer you just keep scrolling.

Until next Saturday...

Stay rebellious,

Travis

P.S. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend.

P.P.S. Subscribe to The Creative Rebellion to be sure you never miss a post! Dispatches will arrive in your inbox every Saturday morning.