Yeah, my nose is still buried in Morgoth's ring. Today it is 9/11. But for us we soon will be remembered of 11/2, then there will be 3/11/2004 (= 911 Days after 9/11) and 7/7.
When I opened the book this morning to read, I immediately read these lines:
'Have ye then no hope?' said Finrod.
'What is hope?' she said. 'An expectation of good, which though
uncertain has some foundation in what is known? Then we have
none.'
'That is one thing that Men call "hope",' said Finrod. 'Amdir we call it, "looking up". But there is another which is founded deeper. Estel we call it, that is "trust". It is not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruhin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves. This is the last foundation of Estel, which we keep even when we contemplate the End: of all His designs the issue must be for His Children's joy. Amdir you have not, you say. Does no Estel at all abide?'
'Maybe,' she said. 'But no! Do you not perceive that it is part of our wound that Estel should falter and its foundations be shaken? Are we the Children of the One? Are we not cast off finally? Or were we ever so? Is not the Nameless the Lord of the World?'
'Say it not even in question!' said Finrod.
'It cannot be unsaid,' answered Andreth, 'if you would understand the
despair in which we walk. Or in which most Men walk. Among the Atani,
as you call us, or the Seekers as we say: those who left the lands of
despair and the Men of darkness and journeyed west in vain hope:
it is believed that healing may yet be found, or that there is some way
of escape. But is this indeed Estel? Is it not Amdir rather; but
without reason: mere flight in a dream from what waking they know: that
there is no escape from darkness and death?'
'Mere flight in a dream you say,' answered Finrod. 'In dream many desires are revealed; and desire may be the last flicker of Estel. But you do not mean dream, Andreth. You confound dream and waking with hope and belief, to make the one more doubtful and the other more sure. Are they asleep when they speak of escape and healing?'
'Asleep or awake, they say nothing clearly,' answered Andreth. 'How or when shall healing come? To what manner of being shall those who see that time be re-made? And what of us who before it go out into darkness unhealed? To such questions only those of the [Old Hope] (as they call themselves) have any guess of an answer.'
May hope be in your hearts today and the days ahead of us.
