{"id":5231,"date":"2016-12-21T20:42:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T01:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/roadsfromemmaus\/?p=5231"},"modified":"2016-12-21T20:42:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T01:42:12","slug":"o-dark-dark-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/asd\/2016\/12\/21\/o-dark-dark-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"O Dark Dark Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nT<\/span>oday being the winter solstice, the shortest day here in the northern hemisphere, I thought I would point to this bit from T. S. Eliot that I always think of on this day:<\/p>\n

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
\nThe vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
\nThe captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
\nThe generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
\nDistinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
\nIndustrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,
\nAnd dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha
\nAnd the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors,
\nAnd cold the sense and lost the motive of action.
\nAnd we all go with them, into the silent funeral,
\nNobody’s funeral, for there is no one to bury.
\nI said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
\nWhich shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
\nThe lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
\nWith a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
\nAnd we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
\nAnd the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away\u2014
\nOr as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
\nAnd the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
\nAnd you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
\nLeaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
\nOr when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing\u2014
\nI said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
\nFor hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
\nFor love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
\nBut the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
\nWait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
\nSo the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
\nWhisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
\nThe wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
\nThe laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
\nNot lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
\nOf death and birth.<\/p>\n

– T. S. Eliot, from<\/i> “East Coker” in the Four Quartets<\/i><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are some of my favorite lines in the Four Quartets<\/i>. There’s a good bit to dwell on here, and as a former stagehand, I especially love:<\/p>\n

As, in a theatre,
\nThe lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
\nWith a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
\nAnd we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
\nAnd the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a remarkable metaphor, and I think that much of what happens in our lives is precisely this, a changing of scenes, of “darkness on darkness,” hidden from our view while it is happening and yet critical in its significance. Then the lights come up, and everything is changed.<\/p>\n

Eliot’s lines aren’t about the solstice, of course, but that “dark dark dark” at the beginning always comes to mind today. And who can help applying these lines to these last few waiting days of Advent?:<\/p>\n

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
\nFor hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
\nFor love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
\nBut the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
\nWait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
\nSo the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, may you be blessed today in these final Advent days with this blessing: “I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you \/ Which shall be the darkness of God.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today being the winter solstice, the shortest day here in the northern hemisphere, I thought I would point to this bit from T. S. Eliot that I always think of on this day: O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark, The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant, The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, The generous patrons of\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[816,579],"tags":[960,961,730],"class_list":["post-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literature","category-poetry","tag-four-quartets","tag-solstice","tag-t-s-eliot"],"yoast_head":"O Dark Dark Dark — Fr. 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