Frodo was middle-aged when he left the Shire.
The movies lead us to believe that Frodo is a spry, young, innocent fellow brought into the folds of an evil awakening in Middle Earth by an elderly, cuckoo wizard. While this is largely and mostly true, Frodo's youthful innocence is far from accurate. In fact, this fellow is the ripe old age of 50. That's right—Frodo was over the hill before ever setting foot out of his beloved hobbit hole. How's that for an adventure?
While some lament this ageism, I personally think it's rather inspiring. Because we're never too old for adventures and we're never too old to do the right thing. Hollywood's obsession with youth is nothing new; while we all love Elijah Wood as Frodo, he was barely 18-years-old, when they filmed the LOTR movies oh-so-long-ago. That actually means that Wood is STILL not the age that Frodo was when he left behind Hobbiton. There's still time, yet!
So if your old bones are creaking and your lower back aches, remember that's not the end of your story by any means. All of our stories can take a turn at any time. All we need is a preposterously magical person to swoop into our lives with an insurmountably impossible task and we'll be headed to Mordor ourselves.
