Sabotaged by the Shadow

This is a selection from T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men",

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow
...
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
...
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
and the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

People wonder what it means - but sometimes life puts you in a place where you experience what it means... you realize words can never really capture it, and he said it well.