Tuesday and T.S.Eliot

So far today has consisted of extremely mundane tasks, one of which was an excursion the sole purpose of which was to purchase trash bags. However, the experience prompted me to once again note my displeasure for the environment I must reside in - it was before noon and already the sun was shining without mercy reminding me that I am living too far south for my personal inclinations. My discomfort, however, caused me to turn my thoughts in the opposite direction and recalled to mind this photograph.

This is the "beach" at Luna Pier, Michigan on Lake Erie. I was there recently while visiting family. The weather that evening was cool, so the offensive smell of rotting carp that permeates the area in higher temperatures was undetectable. In any event, that environment contrasts sharply with my current locale. In Michigan it's possible to find a grain of beauty even at Lake Erie. Here, well, here is just a stiffling pocket of human development, and in those rare spots where the development hasn't reached there's simply nothing.

And so where does an outing for trash bags intersect with T.S. Eliot? The awful weather led me round to the above photograph, which relates to a trip home, which in turn reminds me of the circuitous nature of all things. Which reminds me of several Eliot passages, as I was pawing through some Eliot just the evening past. The passage that lingers with me follows...

"Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

And time future contained in time past.

If all time is eternally present

All time is unredeemable.

What might have been is an abstraction

Remaining a perpetual possibility

Only in a world of speculation.

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.

Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden. My words echo

Thus, in your mind.

But to what purpose

Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves

I do not know."

Okay. So I didn't just buy trash bags. I bought a new notebook and a new package of pens (my favorite variety!). How long it will take before I use them remains to be seen.