Tonight, i had the opportunity to be involved with a Theology and Literature event at our church. What a sight to see the church packed with 70 guests, of whom the majority were just people in the community--from the local area. The ambiance of the evening--jazz, canapes, and wine was amazing. The talk was inspiring. It's such a great feeling to see the walls of our church come down.
It's just another reason why I love living here. I just can't see 70 people turning up in the community for not-so-well-publicized Theology and Literature event back in my California suburb on a Thursday evening. People kept the flier from early February about the event and just turned up.
The speaker did a great job of inspiring us to read the poetry of TS Eliot. I'm one of those that loves a good talk on poetry, but often find it frustrating to navigate on my own--without guidance...the speaker did a good job of making the poetry come alive and expounded very sensible interpretations of TS Eliots writings. I would've never been able to get so much out of the poems on my own.
And from his talk, I realized that much of TS Eliot's self-awareness, his 'mind games with himself', his free-associating style of thought, his way of synthesizing those seemingly random thoughts and feelings, and the pictures he painted with words really resonated with me. Themes of forgiveness, the seemingly endless cycle of humility and pride, true spirituality, and distress over the world--are all themes that recur in my thoughts.
Excerpts such as this one from "Ash Wednesday" are so fun to read, but resonate so much with many of the prayers i've been praying as of late.
Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny
the voice
SiNing,
well, i get to occasionally surf over here and catch up, and i just couldn't pass up t.s. eliot. i had the luxury at stanford of studying with kathleen namphy in a small frosh seminar. she was an amazing and eccentric person herself, and world's foremost expert on t.s. eliot. we had some great times with his poetry and just talking life. silly narrow-minded me was so concerned about whether he was "in" or "out" that i chose that for my paper topic, but at least for the rest of the time i could just sit and enjoy his thoughtful meanderings.
even being completely out of touch, i am reminded of you often enough. when someone says, "i wonder who's befriending the indians who've come to our community?" or when i drive by a particular fire station. or when i think about the importance of eating eggs. or the joys of a short-term assignment in the british isles (by the way, what would you think of receiving a family of 4 couch-surfers, good friends of ours with whom i'm sure you would share great conversation. let me know how you're set up...). recently i was reviewing bay area friends as my best friend leaves thursday, about #8 in a row over 9 years. and i wondered what you guys were thinking these days in terms of timing and geography? hope to someday be back in the same neighborhood...
peace, shanti
Posted by: shanti dickson | June 14, 2010 at 10:09 PM