Early in the novel Zorba the Greek, the narrator is approached by a “loose nit” stranger with an “eager gaze, his eyes, ironical and full of fire.” Within seconds of their meeting, Zorba asks the narrator to take him with him on his journey.
When the narrator asks “Why”, Zorba bursts out “Why! Why! . . . Can’t a man do anything without a why? Just like that, because he wants to?”
How often do we “just take the plunge”, without “weigh[ing] everything to the nearest gram”? When there is so much to do, so much pulling and gnawing at us, demanding our attention, how often do we do something for no other reason than it is good for our souls?
It does not have to be some momentous change. How often do we, for example, jump in the car, drive to the beach for less than 24 hours, just to plunge in the ocean and watch the sunrise? Then turn around again, and drive mile-after-mile back to the office and do all of the responsible things. How often do we do we wake ourselves up to our essence and do that which makes our hearts beat again?
Reference: Kazantzakis, N. (1953) Zorba the Greek, NewYork: Simon and Schuster.