Tolkien himself said that he wanted to present things in a new light, to give people a sense of wonder at the ordinary.

Don't you think I want to better things for your people as quickly as can be?

I didn't want to muddy things more than they were.

My guess was he wanted to even things up a little, which surprised me.

I am going into the shop; I want to tidy things a bit.

I talked him out of that, but then he said he wanted to clear things with you.

"It seems like the commercials are targeted to people who want a quick, easy answer to things."

They didn't want to upset things, wanted our lives to go on as before.

Well, what do you want to square things?

"There were people who didn't want to upset things," he said.