My first thought was of elves. Yet somehow, I couldn't vote "elf". Instead, I voted human.
Not a man of the first ages, but of the later. A human of the age when elves diminish and pass away, leaving the world a little less intriguing, a little less mysterious. A sadness overwhelms me at the thought of elves going away, but it is never for the elves. Instead, I feel sad because of the world is left to men, and with the elves passes much of the glory and the beauty in Middle-Earth.
It feels somehow symbolic to me. I often think about science and development as a killjoy of the worst kind. These days, it seems, no room is left for beauty, for creativity, for mystery, indeed for the world itself. That is why I feel like a human of the later ages, watching the elves pass to the west.
And no, I am not depressed.
