OK, littlemanpoet, I'll go with you here...
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how has Tolkien's works affected your world view and your framework of belief?
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Let's start with the world view: I don't have much confidence in people as a whole and almost none when they get together in large groups and decide upon a leader - a view which Tolkien never iterates, but one I feel he might have held nonetheless. I think people (as a group) are easily lead and tend not to excercise their own intellects when there is another in a position of power whom they feel may be wiser or somehow superior to themselves. By the time those same people realize that the person they've allowed to hold power over them are really no better (and in alot of cases, are far worse) than they are themselves, it's often too late and conflict must ensue. In my view, this is illustrated through how easily Tolkien's characters (Men especially, but certainly Elves as well) succumb to the guile of Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman.
That being said, let's get a little more personal. For me, Tolkien's work has actually fit very well within the framework of belief that had already existed in my life. I found validation for my own points of view in Tolkien's writings, ie., no matter how bad things look at one point or another, things have an amazing tendancy to work out somehow in the end. Granted, it's often through the struggles of many with conflicting goals and uncommon purposes, but somehow or another, good things almost always come out of evil ones.
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is there something from Tolkien's work that you always wished that you could do or be (maybe you role-play it even now) and what about that reflects what you want or wish for, or strive for, or pursue?
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Well, I've never role-played, although it has always sounded like something I'd enjoy, but Frodo has been my role-model since I was ten years old. I wish I could believe that I was like him and possessed his courage and iron will, but I know that had that Ring been thrust at me at the council, I would have run screaming and tried to crawl into Gandalf's lap. (I sometimes don't even have enough will-power to put the cookies down for heaven's sake!) But that hasn't stopped me from aspiring to be more like him. I hope this doesn't chafe anyone or sound sacriligious, but when most Christians would ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?," I would instead ask, "What would Frodo do?" I don't mean to imply that Frodo is in any way a Christ-figure to me, it's just that I simply could not possibly aspire to be like Christ and Frodo is (possibly) a more attainable goal for me. I would like to be the kind of person who would take on a task of this nature for selfless reasons and then be thought well of after I was gone.