#ò

Elrond has the gift of foresight and he probably did before he chose to be immortal; he could look ahead at his life and he knew it was going to hurt, not all the details, but he knew it would hurt and he knew there would be so much loss but there was life and love and joy too and he could do so much Good so much

and he chose the good with the evil and the sorrow with the joy and he helped so many people and the sorrow and the joy were both caught forever in his eyes, and he looked at everything his family had done all the killing and greed and terrible things, isolation for protection at the cost of not helping anyone, and he said no and exposed his heart to be shot again and again to help those he knew were going to die, to love with the assurance of loss, to be hope and comfort and healing and kindness in any way he possibly could because who else would?

The heir of many kingdoms but never a king because he had no desire for that sort of power but he wanted to help and he wanted to love and he got so much pain but so much joy

And it isn't fair to Elros to say he was greedy for power, that he was selfish, that he only wanted glory, because he looked at the mortals of the world who had run and fought and died so hard for so long without hope of being reborn, without hope of a land to run away to someday, without gods who they had spoken to, without a home, and he said you know what I am one of them and I will help them with any strength I have for as long as I have to live because I am one of them and I'm going to die someday and I do not know what will happen then but I am one of them and I will die like one of them and I choose that freely because I have faith and hope that the world and god and the universe isn't all cruel and I don't have to trust like this but I do because I am one of them and I can save them with this choice so I will because they are so brave and so strong and they fight and die and bleed and live and I am one of them

You can't say Elros just wanted glory because what glory was there to have? what glory! The mortals were beaten down and killed and destroyed and broken and they have no great kingdoms – no vast and beautiful glorious realms! What glory? He looked at these broken people who wither and die while the elves say how strange, how sad and he said 'I am One of Them.'

It wasn't for glory. What glory! They were beaten and dying and he said I am one of them

One choice is not better than another. Neither of them are braver or stronger for what they chose. They both chose the ways that they knew how to help and they accepted the pain and the grief, the uncertainty of that choice and lived the life they had chosen as best they could because you can't be stagnant, you can't look at the choices of life and say I don't want these and never do anything

they were given a choice and whatever choice they made would never never come without pain and still they chose and then lived with that choice becoming the best they could be with the life they had chosen and they were both so good and so brave

Elros looked at all the grief and uncertainty and pain of humans and their fragility when he was part holy and part elf and could have lived forever in a blessed realm free from pain and he said no and chose death because he was one of them and the life he would have made all that pain worth it

Elrond could have left too and not faced the pain of the long years that he could see glimpses of; he could have gone to Valinor and lived a stagnant life without grief but he chose to accept the pain for the joys and the help he could bring and I'm never going to be over them

Clothing folds? What are they?