We move above the moving tree
In light upon the figured leaf"
from T. S. Eliot's The Four Quartets
Part I, "Burnt Norton"
A couple of days ago, Gerry told me that he had come across a really good quotation about action.
I got all excited and jumped the gun: "Oh is it the one about "right action is freedom"?
No, that wasn't it. Gerry's new quote was new for me also:
from Shakespeare's Coriolanus
I read Coriolanus once years ago but can't recall ever learning this passage. Thus, I'm counting it as a new -- and intriguing concept -- to think about. Or, even better, to act upon!
Still, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it, that other line kept echoing through my head: "Right action . . . right action . . . right action."
Then yesterday, in a completely unrelated search (or maybe not so unrelated after all!), I was browsing through my posts to find an Eliot passage that I wanted to share with a friend: we "are only undefeated / because we have gone on trying." As I got ready to cut and paste, can you guess what words came into my line of sight?
Let's hear it for connection and coincidence! Suddenly it all fell into place:
From past and future also.
For most of us, this is the aim
Never here to be realised;
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying . . . "
from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets:
Part III, The Dry Salvages
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