About the Blog's Name

I (SZB) named this blog after a portion of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Wasteland". In this part of the poem Eliot is referencing the Upanishads (Hindu fables) in which the Creator speaks through the thunder to the gods, humans and demons, giving them instruction on how to live. All the Creator says is "DA, DA, DA" but each  listener interprets his word, DA, into what they most needed to live in virtue: Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Or, Charity, Mercy and Restraint. Eliot says, "these fragments I have shored against my ruins" which I have always interpreted (likely, incorrectly) to mean those three words hold him together. They are the words I want to hold me together because they are three things I know I need in my life. Like the fruits of the spirit in Galatians (which these three words fit into), against these things there is no law.

Below is the portion of the poem from "The Wasteland" by TS Eliot dealing with Datta, Dayadhvam, and Damyata:

Then spoke the thunder
DA
Datta: what have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms
DA
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus
DA
Damyata: The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The sea was calm, your heart would have responded
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
To controlling hands
     I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?
London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam ceu chelidon - O swallow swallow
Le Prince d'Aquitaine a la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
           Shantih shantih shantih