In my beginning is my end and in my end is my beginning.

The infinite versus the finite. Finite being death. Isn't it ironic that the moment we begin to live or the moment we enter the worl and take our fist breath when we are born is also the moment in which we are brough closer to death. I am not looking at this through a negative lens but more a lens of time. When does it begin and end? Or does it? Sam discussed the idea of music and connected it to The Wind in the Willows- we simply can't be too close to hear it. I was astonished by Tai's mentioning of the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective people. Ok, my shock is simply the fact that I never thought I'd see this book brought up in class...I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I guess. I am deeply in thought about his idea that the recognition of divinity comes not through nature but through humility. Perhaps if I read T.S. Eliot's four quartets as a whole and in depth, rather than focusing on simply the 3rd quartet i could come to a deeper conclusion as to why divinity is recognized through humility not nature. Does one have to feel humility before recognizing the divine? Taylor's mentioning of landscapes was nothing less than mesmerizing. The image of being stuck between them and having "no secure foothold" produced a sort of fear, yet familiarity within me. A feeling of being trapped was present. How and when do you get released? Would this obstruct our idea of time? Perhaps the time would go slower...sometimes when i feel this trapped feeling wishing it would pass it seems as if time has stopped. This idea, ironically enough circled to Kari's part of the presentation when she told us that the only time we have is NOW. There is no better time for things to happen because all we have is the time now, when else could it happen? This idea for me struck hard and may have produced an all too epiphanic moment. How could I not have acknowledged this idea before...because it was in the NOW. Well, I am beginning to confuse myself with that so back to Taylor's...Enchantment, Fairies, time...it seems all too mysitcal- I agree with her view saying that in this part of Eliot time is linear but but have forgotten how the fairies came into it. I have always thought though that Enchanted places do have a different sort of time from the real world.
Another point in the presentation of group 2 that literally sent a chill through me was when Taylor mentioned the fear of death and isolation. It seems all too familiar again and in the present also. It is difficult to face death or think about death from any perspective and some people really do isolate themselves. How does this isolation come about though and why does it lead to isolation. This whole idea being brought up was chilling to me because I have been thinking about this exact thing for a few months now and every time i think I understand it, I realize I don't. Death is descent and darkness as Eliot shows through the images of sea and Earth.
I was quite inspired by all of what Doug had to say and wish I could intersperse some sort of comment but I really need to read this section before I do! So are we looking at circular movement with T.S. Eliot or linear? Do we circle back light to dark and back to light or flow straight into the vast darkness of the oceans linearly.