Fear in a Handful of Dust

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I will show you something different from either

Your shadow at morning striding behind you

Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

From T.S. Elliot’s The Wasteland

I’m told that the last line in this portion of the poem is about how people don’t fear death, they fear leaving nothing behind when they’re gone.  They fear being forgotten.  I don’t know if that interpretation is true, but one thing I know is that when it comes to God we will be remembered and we will leave something behind.  Just think of his careful lists of names in the Old and New Testaments.  He will remember.  We will not be forgotten.