To Find That Which Was Lost... Returned to Us

Fall always makes me think of time... what has passed. It's a time of stagnation, a time of staggering silence. The whole world seems to be taking a deep breath before diving full-tilt into the chill. It's a time of recollection and thankfulness.

For me, Arcadia perfectly captures the sense of the season, as Tom Stoppard transports us back and forth through time. We discover something about history, literature, and more than just a little bit about ourselves. That's what reminiscence is about. Nostalgia. We stand still for a moment and the realities of time and space are still--if only for a moment. It is magical and tragic and wonderful!

In Arcadia, Tom Stoppard writes: "We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more. Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again. You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of Archimedes had been hiding in the great library of Alexandria, we would be at a loss for a corkscrew?"

We lose nothing by remembering, as long as we never let it hold us back. The past is the past. And, Arcadia teaches that as we move forward, anything that's been lost will be renewed again. We will rediscover. Read more quotes. If you've never seen (or read) it, at least take a look at this review.

Cover Art © Farrar Straus & Giroux.