Guidance for Life from T.S. Elliot

The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.

T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

When I was in junior high school, I read voraciously whatever interesting tomes I was able to get my hands on at garage sales, from the library, or from discount bins at the stores. There was no particular rhyme nor reason to what would make its way into my hands, but I was fortunate that some fine books occasionally did. I do remember that at one point I wrote down on a piece of paper a number of lines from several of the books that I considered most instructive to me as a budding young man. I folded that paper many times and placed it carefully in my wallet so that it could accompany me through life. And it did as it remained in that wallet, which became quite battered, for many, many years. If I recall correctly, that battered piece of paper remained in my wallet through law school and into the first years of my employment as a federal civil rights attorney. One of the quotes included on that paper, and which made the greatest impression upon me throughout my life, was the line quoted above, which is from T.S. Elliot’s Murder in the Cathedral. In the play the line was spoken by St. Thomas Becket.

Because I read Murder in the Cathedral, over the many decades of my life, I have often paused to reflect upon my motivations before performing deeds for which I might be credited by others to ensure that I was appropriately and well-motivated. And, in truth, when I have found that I was “ill-motivated,” in whole or in part, I have sought to purge, as well as I could, the treason from my soul.

Upon reflection, I consider myself fortunate that I stumbled – for surely it was happenstance itself –upon this lesson at so early an age to guide me through life. For virtuous actions stained by improper motive would be weighed deficient, indeed, in the final accounting.