RKS Literature: “Two Years Before the Mast”: The Captain Speaks!

“Now my men, we have begun a long voyage. If we get along well together, we shall have a comfortable time; if we don’t, we shall have hell afloat. All you’ve got to do is obey your orders and do your duty like men-then you’ll fare well enough;-if you don’t, you’ll fare hard enough,-I canContinue reading “RKS Literature: “Two Years Before the Mast”: The Captain Speaks!”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: God as the Big Wolf

“The trap-door is open, the evil spirits are coming out. You wanted to see and hear them! ‘Where do we come from?’ you asked. Up and out of the earth, Captain Séfakas. ’Where are we going to?’ you asked. Under the earth Captain Séfakas. What is your duty? To eat if you are a wolf;Continue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: God as the Big Wolf”

RKS Literature: We All Smell the Same: Nikos Kazantzakis

“I’ve made voyages, Captain Mándakas, I’ve seen the whole world. I’ve slept with women of all kinds, I’ve pushed into Africa, where the bread is toasted by the sun. I’ve made great harbours and little ones, I’ve seen millions of black men, millions of yellow men-my eyes brimmed over with them! At first I thoughtContinue reading “RKS Literature: We All Smell the Same: Nikos Kazantzakis”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Eternal Youth? (Nikos Kazantzakis)

“He murmured to himself, ‘It’s really a shame, that youth in human beings doesn’t last a thousand years! Is God perhaps afraid that we’ll take His throne away from Him? Is that why he craftily dismantles us, piece by piece? He pulls out our teeth, screws our knees up stiff, wears out our kidneys, dimsContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Eternal Youth? (Nikos Kazantzakis)”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Pontus Pilate’s View of Jesus

“Pilate had awakened, washed, anointed himself with aromatic oil, and was pacing nervously back and forth on the high solarium of his tower. He had never liked this Passover Day. The Jews drunk with their God, would work themselves into a frenzy, come to blows again with the Roman soldiers-and this year another massacre mightContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Pontus Pilate’s View of Jesus”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: The Rabbi Wonders is it Jesus or Satan?

“During all these days and weeks that he had been running behind Jesus, battling to understand who he was, his ramshackle body had completely melted away. Nothing was left now but a sunbaked hide wrapped around bones to which the soul clung and waited. Was this man the Messiah whom God had promised him, orContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: The Rabbi Wonders is it Jesus or Satan?”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Judas and Jesus

“The redbeard (Judas) growled and bared his teeth like a sheepdog that hears his master’s voice. Head bowed, he turned around and marched heavily over the bridge, talking to himself. He remembered when he roamed the mountains with Barabbas-God bless him-and the other rebels. What an atmosphere of ferocity and freedom. What a splendid leaderContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Judas and Jesus”

RKS Literature: Judas and Jesus

“Judas listened to him and knit his brows. He was not interested in the kingdom of heaven. His great concern was for the kingdom of the earth-and not the whole earth, either, but only the land of Israel, which was made of men and stones. The Romans-those barbarians, those heathens-the Romans were trampling over thisContinue reading “RKS Literature: Judas and Jesus”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Charity and the Day of Reckoning at the Gates of Heaven

“And you whose immortal soul opened a money changing shop: you sit on the threshold, plunge your hand into the sack, give alms to the poor, lend to God. You keep a ledger and write: I gave so many florins for charity so and so on such and such a day, and at such anContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Charity and the Day of Reckoning at the Gates of Heaven”

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Living our Own Murder Mystery

“The sad fact is that there are no natural deaths, despite what doctors say. Every death is felt by someone as a murder, as the unjust taking of a loved being. And even the luckiest of us will encounter one murder in our lives: our own. It is our fate. We all live a murderContinue reading “RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Living our Own Murder Mystery”