The 20 minute lifetime

So as I was reading The Four Quartets I came across a passage that reminded me of a 20 minute lifetime. It goes "You cannot face it steadily, but this thing is sure, That time is no healer: the patient is no longer here. When the train starts, and the passengers are settled To fruit, perioficals, and the passengers are settled (and those who saw them off have left the platform) Their faces relax from grief into relief, To the sleepy rhythm of a hundred hours. Fare forward, travellers! not escaping from the past Into different lives, or into any future; You are not the same people who have left that station Or who will arrive at any terminus," (41)
This made me think of a twenty minute lifetime because it is as if these people are on a time traveling train, experiencing a new life that will seem like a lifetime, but is in actuality only a mere couple of hours. They will be taken away to experience something new and will end up at the next station the same people with this new lifetime experience in their mind.

Studying all these different experiences of twenty minute lifetimes makes me wish that I too had a story to tell of another life within my current life, but sadly I do not. The closest I believe that I have come to having such an experience is in my dreams, most of which I can never remember. I am still crossing my fingers, though, that one day in the near future I will be able to retell a twenty minute lifetime experience of my own.

"The Inner Light" and The Four Quartets

One passage from the Four Quartets that reminded me of something from the Star Trek episode we watched in class was on page 15. It goes "The dance along the artery The circulation of the lymph Are figured in the drift of stars Ascend to summer in the tree We move above the moving tree In light upon the figured leaf And hear upon the sodden floor Below, the boarhound and the boar Pursue their pattern as before But reconciled among the stars." This reminded me of the episode because they planted a tree in the center of their city that represented life (Ascend to summer in the tree We move above the moving tree) they all looked to the tree for hope. Also they studied the stars and were able to determine that their time was coming to an end (The dance along the artery The circulation of the lymph Are figured in the drift of stars) They could see their life in the stars. And in the end they all "reconciled among the stars".

G Day

On the ordinary, yet not so ordinary day of February 2nd, which just so happens to be Groundhogs day, I awoke at 6am to my alarm clock or rather my cellphone blaring ring tone number 17. I groggily rolled over and turned it off thinking off all that lay ahead of me for the day. After laying in bed for another fifteen minutes or so I finally got up and started my day. I did my usual morning routine, shower, get dressed, fix my hair, go and make breakfast (a bowl of captain crunch berries), make myself lunch (a roast beef sandwich on wheat bread with mayo and mozzarella cheese), fed Skeeter, brushed my teeth, and then I packed my backpack and got in my car and drove to work. As I drove to work my favorite song came on (Civil Obedience by Sage Francis). As I listened to it I reflected on all the memories that are brought back to me by this song.

Once I got to work I once again followed my usual routine, turn on computer, go put mail away, unlock the doors, either wait for my boss to give me something to do or start working on a task that I had been working on from the day before. On this particular day I had nothing to do, so I sat and waited for my boss to arrive. As I waited I checked the news and discovered that on this particular Groundhogs Day that Phil the groundhog saw his shadow, which meant that six more weeks of winter lay ahead. After messing around on the computer for nearly an hour, my boss finally arrived and told me that she had nothing for me to do for the time being. Lucky for me though a lady in the business office needed me to run stuff across campus for her, so I grabbed my backpack and the stuff that needed to be taken across and started out towards Montana Hall.

Along my walk I slipped on the ice several times, luckily I always caught myself before I fell. I thought to myself though that if I were in the movie Groundhogs Day that this would have been like him stepping into the puddle, and hopefully I would eventually learn to avoid those patches of ice.

After dropping everything off at Montana Hall I made my way over to Wilson for my two morning classes. I thought that if I were able to repeat this day over and over I could learn all the material for my classes and more and make myself seem extremely smart. After sitting in the same room for nearly three hours it was finally time to head back to work.

At work I sat at my desk and enjoyed my lunch that I had made that morning, and checked my e-mail. After eating my lunch my boss needed me to help her with some spreadsheets. I worked on those until it was time to leave at 3.

Once I was done with work I walked to my car and headed home to work on homework and do chores. I did laundry, cleaned Skeeter's cage, straightened up the house. I then set up my computer at the kitchen table and got to work. At 5 I made dinner (quesadillas) for my roommate and myself. After dinner and homework we sat down to watch some t.v. As we were watching t.v. a commercial came on for Sears and there was a girl running around with a red scarf on. For some unknown reason this reminded me of a story my sister use to tell me when I was little about a girl in a green scarf. I hadn't thought of this story in many years and I still don't know why this particular story brought that memory back up.

After watching t.v. I got ready for bed (brushed my teeth, got into my PJ's). I turned off my lights and got into my bed and stared up at my stars as I drifted off to sleep.