What Life Have You?

What life have you if you have not life together?
There is no life that is not in community,
And no community not lived in praise of GOD.
Even the anchorite who meditates alone,
For whom the days and nights repeat the praise of GOD,
Prays for the Church, the Body of Christ incarnate.
And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads,
And no man knows or cares who is his neighbor
Unless his neighbor makes too much disturbance,
But all dash to and fro in motor cars,
Familiar with the roads and settled nowhere
Nor does the familiy even move about together,
But every son would have his motorcycle,
And daughters ride away on casual pillions.

Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore;
Let the work not delay, time and the arm not waste:
Let the clay be dug from the pit, let the saw cut the stone,
Let the fire not be quenched in the forge.

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
American-born poet and Noel laureate
From *The Rock*