Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden ...
From one of my favorite poems,
Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot. The above lines are the amazing first lines of the "first quartet" Burnt Norton. You can read the entire poem -- and remember to read it aloud - at http://bit.ly/FourQuartets
