Kairos in The Lord of the Rings

I'm deviating slightly from my normal blogging schedule to bring you a couple of posts for Hamlette's Tolkien Blog Party, which is, as you may know, one of my favorite weeks of the blogging year! I'll be posting on Tolkien-esque topics today and Wednesday, and then having my wrap-up as normal on Friday. 

So, on to the post!

"Samantha," you may be thinking right off the bat, "what on earth is 'kairos'? Are you going to be spouting Latin and Greek at us again?"

Well, yes. #sorrynotsorry

Kairos is, to a certain extent, the opposite of Chronos.

And since that makes things as clear as mud, let's do some defining.

I first became familiar with the concept of Kairos and Chronos in reading Madeleine L'Engle's work. She labeled her Austins books "Chronos" and her Murry/O'Keefe books "Kairos". And here's how she defines them:
Chronos: "ordinary, wrist-watch, alarm-clock time"
Kairos: "real time, pure numbers with no measurement"

And then I promptly forgot about this whole thing, because it was interesting but not scintillating.

Only to remember it several years later when our priest friend Fr. JJ was talking about his ordination, and about how time got so strange when he was doing his First Blessings--it seemed to stretch and flow in a completely different way than one would expect. And he called this "Kairos". And related it to joy, any joyful event, where time seems to flow in a different way than normal. 

In Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water (which I have yet to read--I just found this quotation), she says: 

"In kairos we are completely unself-conscious and yet paradoxically far more real than we can ever be when we are constantly checking our watches for chronological time. The saint in contemplation, lost (discovered) to self in the mind of God is in kairos. The artist at work is in kairos. The child at play, totally thrown outside himself in the game, be it building a sandcastle or making a daisy chain, is in kairos. In kairos we become what we are called to be as human beings, cocreators with God, touching on the wonder of creation."

Dictionary.com says that Kairos is sometimes spoken of as "God's time" and "fullness time", as well as the "right time". 

These two definitions suggest that Kairos can be a moment or it can be an experience of a moment, an un-self-conscious immersion in something joyful, where time feels like it flows differently. There's an element of eternity in Kairos.

In a brief aside, after reading that Kairos is spoken of as "God's time" and "fullness time", I decided to look up the phrase "fulness of time" in the Bible in Greek, and see what words were used where. I found something interesting.
In Galatians 4:4, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons", the word Chronos is used. 
But in Ephesians 1:10, "as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth", the word Kairos is used. 
In this sense, it seems like the Bible uses Kairos more as a process-based word, that this plan is for the fulness of time, all time. Whereas when speaking of an individual moment, the Bible uses Chronos.
In any case...

If you think about it, you've definitely experienced Kairos. Think about being at a party, and suddenly it's been five hours, and you ask, "where did the time go?" Or maybe you're holding a baby, and you have to give him or her back to their parents far too soon, even though on the clock, it's been half an hour. Or you're talking with a friend, and somehow it's been two hours, and you need to go do homework. 

I was told recently that it was considered impolite to wear a pocket watch to a dinner party and/or with formal wear, because it would interrupt the Kairos...it would imply that the company there was not worth letting go of Chronos, watch-time, to enter into Kairos, joy-unself-time. 

This reminded me, inexplicably, of The Lord of the Rings. Except, after consideration, it was extremely explicable. 

There are two places in Lord of the Rings that exemplify Kairos, both as an idea and as a reality. 

Can you guess where I'm thinking?

Lothlorien and Rivendell. 

"I listen and I think. Time doesn't seem to pass here: it just is. A remarkable place altogether."

"For a while the hobbits continued to talk and think of the past journey and of the perils that lay ahead; but such was the virtue of the land of Rivendell that soon all fear and anxiety was lifted from their minds. The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song. So the days slipped away, as each morning dawned bright and fair, and each evening followed cool and clear."

“Though he walked and breathed, and about him living leaves and flowers were stirred by the same cool wind as fanned his face, Frodo felt he was in a timeless land that did not fade or change or fall into forgetfulness. When he had gone and passed again into the outer world, still Frodo the wanderer from the Shire would walk there, upon the grass among elanor and niphredil in fair Lothlorien”

"'Well, I can remember three nights in [Lothlorien] for certain, and I seem to remember several more, but I would take my oath it was never a whole month. Anyone would think that time did not count in there!'

'And perhaps that was the way of it,' said Frodo. 'In that land, maybe, we were in a time that has elsewhere gone by.'"

It's no coincidence that both these places are places of rest and joy and beauty. 

In each place, the dictates of Chronos, the Chronos that the Fellowship has been slogging under for so long, are lifted enough for them to rest, recuperate, breathe, experience joy. If you ask someone which places from Fellowship they remember best, they'll probably say either Lothlorien or Rivendell. 

Lothlorien and Rivendell are, in fact, probably the places that the members of the Fellowship remember best. After all, Sam does name his first daughter after the elanor flowers of Lorien, at Frodo's suggestion.

These breaks of rest and recuperation are vital to the story, giving the main characters respite, and even hope, knowing that places of such beauty still exist, and that is what they are fighting to preserve. Both places are visited after a traumatic event, either to a single character or to multiple characters (I'm trying to avoid blatant spoilers here. XD) and Tolkien knew that what his characters needed after that was rest. 

And the fact that time seems to pass a different speed is not something to fear, but something to marvel at, to wonder at, and to enjoy. 

The Kairos through forgetfulness of self and joy brings rest.

Yet, if we think about these places, we may be afraid. Just a little. Think about it--being in a place where time seems to pass more quickly, or not at all? Or both? 

Would you like that?

I don't know if I would. To be completely honest, my mind slightly recoils from it. What about my productivity? What about everything I need to do? What about the time I would lose?

But would the time really be lost? 

My perspective on this, I've realized, is shaped by culture. American culture is organized around time and being on time to a degree that might seem crazy in some countries, ones where being an hour late to a meeting is seen as normal. The American obsession with not losing time, with being productive, with using time to the full has affected me, whether I like it or not. Our culture has a really horrible relationship with work and life, work-life balance being nearly nonexistent for many people.

In addition, American culture is all about the self. Be yourself. Self-care. Being self-centered. Self-help. Do it yourself. There's almost a cult of the self, which is diametrically opposed to the un-self-conscious aspect of Kairos. 

What I need to learn from The Lord of the Rings is that Kairos is not lost time. That occurs nowhere in the definition of Kairos, or in The Lord of the Rings. Kairos is joy-time, God-time, rest-time, recuperation-time, beauty-time, spent-time. The Fellowship does not in any way regret the time spent in Lothlorien or Rivendell. Kairos is necessary for replenishing my store of joy and my ability to give. To journey to Mordor, if you will. 

How do we find Kairos, then? 

It probably varies for everyone, and I am no expert, but I do have a few things I've learned or thought about recently. (All of these things are things that I am really bad at, just as a disclaimer, but I'm working on it!)

1. Put down the clock.
Don't wear a watch. Take the clock off the wall. Put your phone where you can't see it. Looking at clocks brings one into Chronos, which can be good sometimes, but obviously not when people are trying to fall into Kairos. 

2. Kairos in the big and the small
Kairos can obviously be found in large joyful occasions--an ordination, a wedding, a dance, a party--but it can also be found in the small. Lying on your bed with a good book. Eating dinner with a friend. Playing a board game with your family. Having a meaningful conversation. Even sleeping, in some sense, I believe. Be open to Kairos in many things.

3. Don't think about the future
In myself, I have a perverse urge to ALWAYS think about the future. Tomorrow will be a good day. Tomorrow I will become virtuous. But what about today? Why can I not live in the present moment? Kairos is about the present moment. It's a place where eternity touches time, and we need to be here for that to happen. "and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song", as Tolkien says. Savor. Breathe. Be.

So. What do you think? What have been some of your favorite Kairos moments? Had you heard about Kairos before? What are some ways that you experience Kairos?