defeat(0/2)
We have fought the long defeat
I have dwelt with [Celeborn] years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat. (Galadriel describing she and Celeborn’s activity in the land of Middle-Earth: i.e. the long defeat)
Real life is an endurance test
Real life–as distinguished from romanticized, sentimentalized life–is largely an endurance test, a “long defeat.” Hope based on empirical evidence of human goodness or human perfectibility is not true hope; it is only optimism or “positive thinking” and cannot stand up to the actual situation. True hope is the hope-against-hope of which Paul speaks in Romans 4:18; that is to say, it is based on a promise from a sphere beyond this one.…