Peter's Page
From the Executive Director,
17 January 2008
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.
T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets, from IV, “Little Gidding”
I was drawn to Eliot’s quote because, after a New Year begins, I often think about cycles of change and transformation. Our work, of course, puts us down right in the middle of the nexus of beginnings/endings, and I’m aware that I much prefer a beginning to an end. A beginning: so potentially hopeful and uplifting, so filled with new possibility. An ending: so unequivocal, so finished, so . . . dead. When the Buddha said, “Everything that has a beginning has an end. Make your peace with that and all will be well,” he wasn’t focusing on a struggle with beginnings. He was pointing out our universal human tendency to project onto endings our uneasy awareness of our own mortality. I think that’s why many people, myself included, often have unexpected emotional reactions to endings. I’ve often experienced a feeling of sadness and disorientation that is hard to shake, even as celebration for a wonderful conclusion swirls around me. Perhaps this is a darker channel that gets progressively activated with age; perhaps it pervades our lives throughout. Regardless, I’d personally like to become more comfortable with Eliot’s message: that even during the quiet, apparent “deadness” of winter, the bulbs are also lying dormant, waiting to burst into blossom as the natural world moves into its next beginning. I hope your New Year is filled with wonderful new blooms.
Peter F. Norlin, Ph.D.
Executive Director