Curate, connect, and discover
Your right, time is precious. Nothing you do can get you more time, death is inevitable. All the more reason to live while you can.
Like Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
As I write my Aralas fic I keep trying to come up with ways for Aragorn to become immortal. Even though my fic is set 60+ years before FOTR, and Aragorn won't die in cannon for another 190 years, I am forced to deal with his mortality compared to the elves. 210 years is a VERY long time, but when it is compared to an elf who has already lived over a millennium, it's basically moments.
I've tried to come up with loopholes, like Eru made Tuor immortal, couldn't he do that for Aragorn? Couldn't Legolas sneak him into the undying lands like he did with Gimli in cannon? Aragorn is technically part of Elros's bloodline, so theoretically shouldn't he be able to choose between mortality and immortality like Arwen?
But in the end I keep coming back to the same place. Yes, there are plenty of ways I can make him immortal, but maybe I don't have to. Maybe in the end Aragorn dies and he and Legolas don't get to be together in the undying lands, and maybe that's okay.
When characters constantly cheat death it cheapens it, it takes away its meaning. Aragorn, and the rest of the men for that matter, were given the gift of mortality, a precious, precious gift in the eyes of Eru. Why should he give that up?
Nothing can last forever, not in life and not in fiction. Shouldn't it be enough just to enjoy it while we have it?