Beginnings and Endings

New Year, New Blog 

 I set up this blog a year or so ago, but what with one thing and another (mostly writing two novellas) I never got round to doing anything with it. Having been linked to academic institutions most of my life I always feel the year starts in September rather than January, April 5th or Advent Sunday, a view reinforced by the time I spend in France where this is the Rentrée, when not just schools and universities but most social organisations start a new year of activities. Therefore now seems a good time to make a start with my blog.

 There is a nice paradox in marking a new beginning when the leaves are starting to turn and nature is beginning to shut down for the winter.  Whilst she was imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots embroidered the words "En ma Fin gît mon Commencement..."- In my End is my Beginning… ; a phrase T S Eliot in Four Quartets, a set of poems all about beginnings and ends, turned round:.

  What we call the beginning is often the end 
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
 The end is where we start from….. 

 And any action 
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
 Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
 We die with the dying:
 See, they depart, and we go with them.
 We are born with the dead: 
See, they return, and bring us with them.
 The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree 
Are of equal duration.

What does beginning and ending mean to you? 

I hope this blog will become a place for conversation rather than just me sounding off, so please add thoughts to this post. If you have a Google account you can easily do that; if you don’t then email your comments to petertoon@aol.com then I’ll add them to the discussion. 

 If you know other people whom you think might be interested in these discussions just forward them my email signature, which includes the link. At present my plan is to post thoughts to start a new conversation about once a fortnight, around the end of the first and the third week of the month.

 I look forward to hearing from you.

God Bless
 
Peter

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