This is my favorite excerpt from T.S. Eliot's
Family Reunion. (The very last part of Act III)
Chorus:
We do not like to look out the same window, and see quite a different landscape.
We do not like to climb a stair, and find that it takes us down.
We do not like the maze in the garden, because it too closely resembles the maze in the brain.
We do not like what happens when we are awake, because it too closely resembles what happens when we are asleep.
We understand the ordinary business of living,
We know how to work the machine,
We can usually avoid accidents,
We are insured against fire,
Against larceny and illness,
Against defective plumbing,
But not against the act of God.
We know various spells and enchantments,
And various forms of sorcery,
Divination and chiromancy,
Specifics against insomnia,
Lumbago, and the loss of money.
But the circle of our understanding
Is a very restricted area.
Except for a limited number
Of strictly practical purposes
We do not know what we are doing;
And even, when you think of it,
What is happening outside of the circle?
And what is the meaning of happening?
What ambush lies beyond the heather
And behind the Standing Stone?
Beyond the Heaviside Layer
And behind the smiling moon?
And what is being done to us?
And what are we, and what are we doing?
To each and all of these questions
There is no conceivable answer.
We have suffered far more than a personal loss--
We have lost our way in the dark.
Ivy: I shall have to stay till after the funeral: will my ticket to London still be valid?
Gerald: I do not look forward with pleasure to dealing with Arthur and John in the morning.
Violet: We must wait for the will to be red. I shall send a wire in the morning.
Charles: I fear that my mind is not what it was-- or was it?-- and yet I think that I might understand.
All: But we must adjust ourselves to the moment: we must do the right thing.
[Enter, form one door, Agatha and Mary, and set a small portable table. From another door, enter Denman carrying a birthday cake with lighted candles, which she sets on the table. Exit Denman. Agatha and Mary walk slowly in single file round and round the table, clockwise. At each revolution they blow out a few candles, so that their last words are spoken in the dark.]
Agatha:
A curse is slow in coming
To complete fruition
It cannot be hurried
And it cannot be delayed
Mary:
It cannot be diverted
An attempt to divert it
Only implicates others
At the day of consummation
Agatha:
A curse is a power
Not subject to reason
Each curse has its course
Its own way of expiation
Follow Follow
Mary:
Not in the day time
And in the hither world
Where we know what we are doing
There is not its operation
Follow Follow
Agatha:
But in the night time
And in the hither world
Where we know what we are doing
There is not its operation
Follow Follow
Mary:
A curse is written
On the under side of things
Behind the smiling mirror
And behind the smiling moon
Follow Follow
Agatha:
This way the pilgrimage
Of expiation
Round and round the circle
Completing the charm
So the knot be unknotted
The cross be uncrossed
The crooked be made straight
And the curse be ended
By intercession
By pilgrimage
By those who depart
In several directions
For their own redemption
And that of the departed--
May they rest in peace.
