Leaves of Grass

---

(Bill)

The scene is Athens,

A bunch

of the local brainiacs

have gotten together.

The wine is being passed

and the ideas are flowing

fast and furious.

The debate's in full force.

And Socrates has the floor.

Who enters?

Alcibiades. Drunk.

A beautiful man.

Hopelessly in love

with his mentor, Socrates.

And uniquely,

in all of these dialogs,

Socrates doesn't

get the last word.

Alcibiades does. Why?

(Bill)

Because passion,

Plato seems to be saying,

is essentially

and mercilessly human.

And the best

that we can hope

to do is to quell it

through relentless discipline.

To Socrates,

the healthy life is

comprised of constant focus

by the individual

to excise those forces

that weaken or

confuse his understanding

of the world around him.

He implores us

to devote our lives

to this kind of control.

Meaning, our every

waking moment.

Socrates recognized

what every philosopher

and religion, for that matter

in the history of the world,

from Plato to Aristotle

from Epicurus to the Stoics

from the Judeo-Christians

to the Buddhists

have all observed

which is that

the balance needed

for a happy life is illusory.

And as soon as

in our gorgeously

flawed human way

we think

that we've attained it

we're pretending divinity

and we're gonna crash.

Like Icarus,

flaming into the sea.

So think about that

this weekend when you think

you're on top of the world

and then you pour

a pitcher of beer

down your throat

and chase

that upper classmen

who's out of your league.

Aristotle is next week.

Don't just look

at it as words.

Imagine the scene.

These were people. They

were alive like you and me.

They thought things.

Breath them into life.

[Bells toll]

(Anne)

So, I was thinking

about doing this contrast

between dialog

and chorus in Sophocles.

You should

read Nietzsche's

Birth of Tragedy.

He says that tragedy

emerges from the clash

between Apollo God

of reason and harmony

and Dionysus,

God of intoxication.

And that their struggle

within our human condition

is inevitable

and that that

is what has produced

the most

salient form of art

the world's ever known.

Tragedy?

What, you don't think so?

I like comedies.

You wanna see a movie?

No, Miss Greenstein.

I'm sorry.

Did you get my note?

I did.

And?

It was very clever

to write it in Latin.

With the repeated use

of the passive periphrastic?

That's quite profligate.

And how I was

sending Cicero

with alliterative adjectives

thrusting themselves

into the verbs?

None of this

was lost on me.

So?

Miss Greenstein.

You are very, very bright

and very fetching

in your way.

But there

are certain rules

mores if you will,

lines that we don't cross.

I'm not joking, actually

and I'm gonna ask you

in the future to refrain...

No. No!

Please don't do that.

I'm going to ask you

to open that door,

Miss Greenstein.

(in Latin)

Lingua sed torpet,

tenuis sub artis.

Flama deanat sonitu suopte.

Catullus 51,

the Lesbia cycle, yes.

However...

Oh, no-no-no!

Absolutely not.

(in Latin)

Tintinant aures

gemina et teguntur.

This is, don't,

this is not good

for either of us. No!

Oh!

Excuse me!

Uh, I'll, I'll...

Uh, Maggie.

Maggie!

Please don't go.

Miss Greenstein

was just leaving.

Maggie.

Absolutely nothing.

You don't

have to say anything.

I would never.

She, she, she

went and just wah.

They're all

in love with you.

Just like Harvard.

Who told you that?

This is the Classics

Department. No one is more

gossipy than you people.

Okay. I am going

to Cambridge in the morning.

It's just a lunch.

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