Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance that marks the beginning of Lent.

Since I'm usually rambling on about weather, birds and casseroles, T.S. Eliot is a bit much first thing in the morning.

Eliot's poems can be hard and confusing. But as the years pass, they mean something different each time you read them. About forty-five years ago, I randomly pulled The Collected Works of T.S. Eliot off the shelf in our tiny high school library and since then he's been a part of my life.

The long poem Ash Wednesday was written by T.S. Eliot in 1927, right after his conversion to Anglicanism. It deals with someone who lacked faith in the past, but now struggles to move toward God. It is an ambiguous and strange poem about hope and human salvation.

A few lines from Ash Wednesday:

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are...