J.R.R. Tolkien was born 126 years ago today. His blockbuster trilogy Lord of the Rings introduced the teenage me, who was growing up in Texas suburbia, to the escapism of a well-told story.
I'm showing this photo because it's set in the Italian Alps, called the Dolomites, which is about the closest I've been to a place resembling middle earth. The hiker is Paul. We'd spent the previous night at Rifugio Tissi --- a spectacular place that --- and here we were heading for our last stop, Sebastiano.
