Alpha and Omega

An "ouroboros" drawn by Theodoros Pelecanos, Synosius (1478)

One generation passeth away, and another cometh;

And the earth abideth for ever.

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,

And hasteth to his place where he ariseth.

The wind goeth toward the south,

And turneth about unto the north;

It turneth about continually in its circuit,

And the wind returneth again to its circuits.

All the rivers run into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full;

Unto the place whither the rivers go,

Thither they go again.

All things toil to weariness;

Man cannot utter it,

The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor the ear filled with hearing.

That which hath been is that which shall be,

And that which hath been done is that which shall be done;

And there is nothing new under the sun.

(Ecclesiastes 1.4-9)

So, we've come to the end. We're due to take the final in a few hours, and our ecclesia will be no more. Or will it?

As my introductory blog post, a lifetime ago in August, lifted its title from the first chapter of Genesis ("...and there was light."), I thought it would be fitting to take a passage from the last chapter of Revelation for my official sign-off. Perhaps, just Omega - the end. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that espousing such a point A to point B linearity would betray what we've learned in this class. And would lead the spirit of Northrop Frye to haunt me for my typological ineptitude.

Ironically enough, I found the above passage from Ecclesiastes as a preface to Telling It Again and Again: Repetition In Literature & Film, by Bruce F. Kawin (1972), while researching for my previously-mentioned Film Theory term paper on repetition and rhythm in the age of digital reproduction. It reminded me of the central reason, amongst many lesser ones, that the King James Version has continued to persist as the biblical English translation par excellence for the last four hundred years - its endearingly poetic language. I had already glossed over this passage in the NSRV, but it took seeing it rendered in the KJV's archaic, yet beautiful, mode for the message to strike me, causing a revelatory anamnesis. Right away, I knew I had to use it for my last post.

This is not the end, but simply the next step in a cycle. While the class may be drawing to a close, the learning and growth - an amazing amount for a 200-level course - I've undergone as part of our ecclesia lead by Dr. Sexson, will no doubt continue to expand and manifest itself throughout my life. As Amanda Jone's blog poignantly states, "Something has been planted." This end is only a beginning amongst many; an alpha and an omega.