At one with the universe
A joyous, rolicking testimony of the power of wine to turn men into gods, or at least make them feel that way. Zorba’s exuberance and vivid experience of even the commonplace makes him a world class nuannaarpoqian. May you occasionally feel as if you will live a...
Every day is new
One of the tricks of nuannaarpoq living, as far as I can see, is to remain wide-eyed and open-hearted, to view and experience things as if they are new, even if they are quotidian. It is this quality, along with sheer unbounded exuberance, which wins Zorba a...
Warm blood and solid bones
Zorba is one of the great Nuannaarpoqians of the world, running the gamut from Authentic to Zestful. Here is his uncomplicated capacity to feel joy and suffering in equal measure. I also like the phrase ‘fine sieve of metaphysics’, though not if it impedes...
A hamper of friendship
Something magical about hampers and other gifts of food and drink. I could live without the arack, but love the cheese, pomegranates, and raisin and fig selection, a perfect picnic snack. See also Pliny the Younger on a gift of dates.’A little later he sent us...
To rejoice the heart
A pretty good list of joy-triggers: clear laughter, kind words and tasty dishes. What else? Tell me three more, or one, or two. And what a comment on Zorba, that his return meant the return of all the things that rejoice the heart. There can hardly be a greater...
How simple and frugal
A ringingly simple statement about happiness needing few props in the right place with the right person. A happy moment between Zorba and his friend and occasional boss. Feel free to complete the sentence, ‘How simple and frugal a thing is...
Time as heart-beat
We spend so much of our time measuring time, by rods or miles, minutes or seconds. But its passing is the passing of our heart-beats, our life. Less time measuring, more time living! ‘Time is not a field, to be measured in rods, nor a sea, to be measured in...
Of dates and roses
What an unusual depiction of a city, here praised by the disciple Andrew in the desert-bright novel about the last days of Jesus, by the author of Zorba the Greek, Kazantzakis. I wonder if anyone now would think of Jericho in such terms these days? And those...
On irrigating the world
The idea and experience of time, as an enabler or a constraint in living life to the optimum, is a recurring theme in my mind. Lack of time is one of the curses of our time, despite all the bits of kit we’ve created or loaded up on ostensibly to free up more of...Yes, sign me up!
