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Tara was the Georgia plantation brought into literary history by Margaret Michell and into movie history by Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Olivia deHavilland.  The Wind was our Civil War which drastically altered Southern ways, culturally and economically. When the war was over, Tara, the wealthy and aristocratic plantation, was gone with the Wind.

We may speak of something else blown away by a wind, something written about by Lancelot Andrewes, an Anglian clergyman (1555-1626) of very great influence in his time and since. Andrewes had a lifelong ministry in the church, supervised the translation of the King James Bible and wrote many theological and devotional works. While his thoughts were profound and serious, he did take a skip once in a while as in “Wisdom ruleth in councils—so do riches.” He is an important figure in church history, and T. S. Eliot has done much to keep him in the modern mind. An instance is the opening passage in Eliot’s Journey of the Magi wherein Eliot quotes Andrewes:

"A cold coming they had of it at this time of the year, just the worst time of the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey. The ways deep, the weather sharp, the days short, the sun farthest off, in the very dead of winter." 

Eliot and Andrewes, of course, are talking of the far away and long ago journey of the Wisemen, but this Whisper is for the here and now journey for all.  It is from a work titled: Private Devotions of Bishop Andrewes, (1647).  It is a long way from Gable, Leigh, and deHavilland, yet eventually they will be, as will you and I, and everyone, gone with the wind.

"Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; remember, Lord, how short my time is; remember that I am but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. My days are as grass, as a flower of the field; for the wind goeth over me, and I am gone, and my place shall know me no more."

                                                                                —Lancelot Andrewes,   1647

Andrewes speaks to us from almost four centuries past, yet he is as current as one can be, for however important we might think we are, however impressive and public our achievements, however high our social rank, however arrogant or humble we may have become, however flattering our obituaries, however long our families preserve photos and mementos, we are the same as those who lived in Tara. In time, we will all be gone with the wind.