Lunch was over, and we walked back to the hotel with the light and dark of Paris screaming at us.

The personal quality of Samuel Beckett is similar to qualities I had found in the plays. He says nothing that compresses experience within a closed pattern. ``Perhaps'' stands in place of commitment. At the same time, he is plainly sympathetic, clearly friendly. If there were only the mess, all would be clear; but there is also compassion.

As a Christian, I know I do not stand where Beckett stands, but I do see much of what he sees. As a writer on the theater, I have paid close attention to the plays. Harold Clurman is right to say that ``Waiting for Godot'' is a reflection (he calls it a distorted reflection) ``of the impasse and disarray of Europe's present politics, ethic, and common way of life.'' Yet it is not only Europe the play refers to. ``Waiting for Godot'' sells even better in America than in France. The consciousness it mirrors may have come earlier to Europe than to America, but it is the consciousness that most ``mature'' societies arrive at when their successes in technological and economic systematization propel them into a time of examining the not strictly practical ends of culture. America is now joining Europe in this ``mature'' phase of development. Whether any of us remain in it long will depend on what happens as a result of the technological and economic revolutions now going on in the countries of Asia and Africa, and also of course on how long the cold war remains cold.