The Hobbit is one of those childhood stories we think about as a grand adventure, but what we don't take into account is how Bilbo lived his life AFTER the war.

This is some philosophical rambling about the nature of the Veteran, so forgive me if I state truths that would have been obvious to any reader of the Lord of the Rings upon first publishing, but modern disconnect from the war experience has relegated to the "Footnotes" category.

I’ve been on Team Gandalf ever since he first visited the Shire. It was so nice to see a wizard who was truly a wizard of the people. The kind of wizard who wouldn’t even throw you in a dungeon for smoking a little Longbottom Leaf or Old Toby. Here was a wizard who didn’t have a big fancy tower. His staff and cloak were rather plain and grey. And he had quite a dream, didn’t he?