Letting someone else make it beautiful

I’ve written before about trying to transform pain or anxiety into something beautiful. Today I got so frustrated I couldn’t find the right words to make it OK. So I turned to an expert:

You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
    You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
    You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
    You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
    You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not. – T. S. Eliot, “East Coker”, from Four Quartets

Darn it, Tom, I hate when you’re right.

Posted in

Margaret Felice

Scroll to Top