abZorba

I don't know if this is part of PBS' mandate, but I remember seeing some incredible classic movies on Saturday nights when I was growing up. I was reminded of this because tonight I had the TV on and there was Anthony Quinn, delivering such classic lines as "We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the rhythm of people and things." He also says something to the effect of "the greatest sin of which man is capable to be not going to the bed of a woman who calls him."

The most memorable exchange (cribbed from the book):

"During all those years you've been burning yourself up consuming their black books of magic, you must have chewed over about fifty tons of paper! What did you get out of them?"

"We are little grubs, Zorba, minute grubs on the small leaf of a tremendous tree. The small leaf is the earth. The other leaves are the stars that you see moving at night. We make our way on this little leaf examining it anxiously and carefully. We smell it; it smells good or bad to us. We taste it and find it eatable. We beat on it and it cries out like a living thing.

"Some men -- the more intrepid ones -- reach the edge of the leaf. From there we stretch out, gazing into chaos. We tremble. We guess what a frightening abyss lies beneath us. In the distance we can hear the noise of the other leaves of the tremendous tree, we feel the sap rising from the root of our leaf and our hearts swell. Bent thus over the awe-inspiring abyss, with all our bodies and all our souls, we tremble with terror. From that moment begins…"

"I stopped. I wanted to say "from that moment begins poetry," but Zorba would not have understood. I stopped.

"'What begins'? asked Zorba's anxious voice. 'Why did you stop'?

"…begins the great danger, Zorba. Some grow dizzy and delirious, others are afraid; they try to find an answer to strengthen their hearts, and they say: 'God'! Others again, from the edge of the leaf, look over the precipice calmly and bravely and say: 'I like it.'!