Why do we read this stuff?

[Fíriel of Ao Tea Roa]

"too high expectations, which are never or seldom met. Too rarely life treats you with beauty - of nature, or of fellow humans."

Why do I sometimes fear Tolkien must have felt the same way? And why does my heart knows this to be true, too?

Then again, I try to remind myself that as long as one lives there is hope. And as Gandalf put it:

"So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All that they have to decide is what to do with the time that is given them."

It seems like ajoke that all we are given is one life when there is so much to take care of and for..