On Wednesday February 22nd, at 6:30 pm in the Meetinghouse, we’ll mark the beginning of Lent with a complete reading of T.S. Eliot’s modern poetic masterpiece, The Waste Land. Written a little more than 100 years ago, it was published in 1922 amidst conditions not wholly unlike 2023, in the aftermath of a global pandemic and a catastrophic war. Eliot’s language depicts a shattered and barren land, in which people are searching for solace, and ultimately, for the waters of life. It is one of the great pillars of modern literature, and serves as a fitting way to begin the journey into Lent. Following the reading, ashes will be given to all who wish.
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Nash, Paul. “The Menin Road.” Imperial War Museums, http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/20087.