From Astronauts to Tolkien

One of the weblogs I have started reading is Baseball Musings. As it turns out, the author has a connection to Dave Brown, one of the lost Columbia astronauts. He posted the following from an email Dave's wife sent him:

I would just like to pass on some words, that Dave had told me, for I know that he would had liked for all to hear. One of my many conversations that Dave and I have had over the last few months was about if something should happen to him during this mission. As he turned towards me and looked right into my eyes, he said "that I want you to find the person that caused the accident, go to them and tell them that I hold no animosity for the decision that resulted in the loss of the vehicle. But also tell them that I died doing what I loved to do..... and I hold no regrets.

Wow.

I realize that some of my readers may think me obsessed with the collected works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and that the following will likely only serve to reinforce that belief, but one of the first things that I thought of after hearing about the Columbia was this bit of poetry from The Two Towers:

Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?