Have you watched ’Zorba The Greek’?
Or read the book?
If not – do either. Do both. They’re amazing.
(Side note – Anthony Quinn as Zorba will break your heart and, while recovering, why not watch ‘La Strada’ where, as a strong man in love with a clown, he’ll break your heart all over again).
Anyway, back to Zorba.
If you’ve not seen it you might have the impression that it’s a feel-good movie about happy greek people living by the sea, eating nice food and dancing.
Spoiler alert – it’s not. It’s powerful and in places, dark. It’s not ‘Mamma Mia’ without Abba songs. It’s about life. Life – as Zorba puts it in the film – lived in ‘the full catastrophe.
Zorba chooses life. He chooses joy. He chooses vitality and optimism whatever the world throws at him. When everything comes crashing down (literally at the film’s climax), he stands on the beach and does that famous dance to that famous piece of music.
It is a celebration of the human will to live in the depths of catastrophe. (You can watch the scene here: https://youtu.be/BS0w3Wkric8?si=UnvroQYPwNAqFgF3 – for context, just before this scene, the characters have met with utter catastrophe, and it is no one’s fault but heir own.)
Zorba lives in the heart of ‘the full catastrophe’ – a phrase later used by Meditation Teacher and ‘Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction’ researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn to describe living in full acceptance of what is.
Much of what we see online is not ‘the full catastrophe’. It’s either ‘I’ve got my shit together and will tell you how to do the same’ or it’s ‘I’m struggling and it’s someone else’s fault’. (Another spoiler alert: sometimes it is someone else’s fault. This is not one of those ‘everything is your responsibility and your responsibility alone’ pieces of writing).
Living in the heart of the Full Catastrophe is accepting it all: big and small, disaster and triumph, pain and joy. It’s choosing to dance, laugh, create, connect, and hope.
Embracing the Full Catastrophe is embracing life.
One of the 8 Principles of Presence I work with takes you towards this: ‘Have No Opinion’.
However your year has been and whatever plans or hopes you have for 2025, can you sit in the genuine heart of your own, personal, full catastrophe? Can you reflect on what you really experienced, and build from where you really are? Can you embrace life, in all its messy glory?
This year has been a tough one for me in many ways. Sitting in the heart of it, and choosing to believe things will get better, is hard. Self-pity is more attractive. Giving up feels easier. Neither will get me anywhere.
In a world of struggle, I choose to be Zorba.
Dance.
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