Nikos Kazantzakis was the author of The Last Temptation of Christ, Zorba the Greek, and (my favorite) the autobiographical Report to Greco.  There are so many literary treasures in Greco that I do not know where to start.  But my favorite theme of his is the role of language in quelling the beasts in the human heart.  For example, he describes the alphabet as, “26 toy soldiers that guard the rim of the abyss”.  (That is my paraphrasing.)  Here he is noting that the advent of language, individually and as a species, is a huge step in developing an identity which then separates us from the beasts of the field.

I’d like to share a note of his from the preface of Report to Greco:

THREE KINDS OF SOULS, THREE PRAYERS:

1. I am a bow in your hands, Lord.  Draw me, lest I rot.

2. Do not overdraw me, Lord.  I shall break.

3. Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break?