Leaves of Grass

---

(Bill)

The scene is Athens,

A bunch

of the local brainiacs

have gotten together.

The wine is being passed

and the ideas are flowing

fast and furious.

The debate's in full force.

And Socrates has the floor.

Who enters?

Alcibiades. Drunk.

A beautiful man.

Hopelessly in love

with his mentor, Socrates.

And uniquely,

in all of these dialogs,

Socrates doesn't

get the last word.

Alcibiades does. Why?

(Bill)

Because passion,

Plato seems to be saying,

is essentially

and mercilessly human.

And the best

that we can hope

to do is to quell it

through relentless discipline.

To Socrates,

the healthy life is

comprised of constant focus

by the individual

to excise those forces

that weaken or

confuse his understanding

of the world around him.

He implores us

to devote our lives

to this kind of control.

Meaning, our every

waking moment.

Socrates recognized

what every philosopher

and religion, for that matter

in the history of the world,

from Plato to Aristotle

from Epicurus to the Stoics

from the Judeo-Christians

to the Buddhists

have all observed

which is that

the balance needed

for a happy life is illusory.

And as soon as

in our gorgeously

flawed human way

we think

that we've attained it

we're pretending divinity

and we're gonna crash.

Like Icarus,

flaming into the sea.

So think about that

this weekend when you think

you're on top of the world

and then you pour

a pitcher of beer

down your throat

and chase

that upper classmen

who's out of your league.

Aristotle is next week.

Don't just look

at it as words.

Imagine the scene.

These were people. They

were alive like you and me.

They thought things.

Breath them into life.

[Bells toll]

(Anne)

So, I was thinking

about doing this contrast

between dialog

and chorus in Sophocles.

You should

read Nietzsche's

Birth of Tragedy.

He says that tragedy

emerges from the clash

between Apollo God

of reason and harmony

and Dionysus,

God of intoxication.

And that their struggle

within our human condition

is inevitable

and that that

is what has produced

the most

salient form of art

the world's ever known.

Tragedy?

What, you don't think so?

I like comedies.

You wanna see a movie?

No, Miss Greenstein.

I'm sorry.

Did you get my note?

I did.

And?

It was very clever

to write it in Latin.

With the repeated use

of the passive periphrastic?

That's quite profligate.

And how I was

sending Cicero

with alliterative adjectives

thrusting themselves

into the verbs?

None of this

was lost on me.

So?

Miss Greenstein.

You are very, very bright

and very fetching

in your way.

But there

are certain rules

mores if you will,

lines that we don't cross.

I'm not joking, actually

and I'm gonna ask you

in the future to refrain...

No. No!

Please don't do that.

I'm going to ask you

to open that door,

Miss Greenstein.

(in Latin)

Lingua sed torpet,

tenuis sub artis.

Flama deanat sonitu suopte.

Catullus 51,

the Lesbia cycle, yes.

However...

Oh, no-no-no!

Absolutely not.

(in Latin)

Tintinant aures

gemina et teguntur.

This is, don't,

this is not good

for either of us. No!

Oh!

Excuse me!

Uh, I'll, I'll...

Uh, Maggie.

Maggie!

Please don't go.

Miss Greenstein

was just leaving.

Maggie.

Absolutely nothing.

You don't

have to say anything.

I would never.

She, she, she

went and just wah.

They're all

in love with you.

Just like Harvard.

Who told you that?

This is the Classics

Department. No one is more

gossipy than you people.

Okay. I am going

to Cambridge in the morning.

It's just a lunch.

I don't want to know.

[Rock music]

[Heavy twangy accent]

We don't deal

in crystal meth.

We don't deal in cocaine

Not your rock stuff

or your powder.

We don't deal in nothin'

you gotta cook up in a spoon

and shoot in through your arm.

Pills? Pharmaceuticals?

Hell no, by and large.

Maybe, well, maybe

the Black Molly's gonna

pass through these hands

on its way

to somewheres else, just

on the account of the fact

I liked popping 'em

in high school. They helped

me get my homework done.

But that's generally

where we draw the line.

No, sir.

We're dealing 100

percent pure Oklahoma grown.

Exclusive. Why?

'Cause I ain't gonna

blow my house up

mixing antihistamine

into dynamite.

And spiritually, I don't

cotton to something that's

gotta pass through a needle.

Chemicals, well,

I just don't like 'em.

Our people was

bootleggers 'fore all this.

It was

a backyard operation.

They did it natural.

A little bit more

of a science nowadays.

I will grant you that.

(Shaver)

He say you change

your mind, get you up north.

(Bolger)

He said Texas?

Texas ain't

gonna happen.

(Waddell)

Think we don't

wanna sell in Texas?

Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri.

[Snorts and spits]

I ain't interested.

He say

you better

get interested.

Meanin' what?

Meanin' your choice

is to expand your business

or we shut

you down entire.

Then how you gonna

pay your debt?

Well, what happened

to Fatback?

Arrested last week.

And the Rawls feller?

Blowed his house up.

(Brady)

That's what

I'm talking about.

Well, it's

tough times.

Ain't it

the truth.

Used to get

trip wires and booby traps,

a good set of dogs, pay

off your constable and just

lived out on the property.

Get your little

and be like growin' soy beans.

Even the War on Drugs

passed us by.

Now they have

the War on Terror.

Not that I ain't

interested in the travails

of a small-time dealer.

You calling me

small time?

We gotta

make it to Tulsa.

I was the first

grower to use hydroponics.

What's that?

Germinating the seed

in water, you shithead.

You know how many generations

of hybridization I did

to get top varietals?

There is a goddamn

reason I grow the best.

Enough, Brady.

What's it gonna be?

Pug wants his money.

Well, if I'd've known

about a time table, we'd...

Shut your face

about a time table.

He's offering you

a way out. You sure

as sh*t better take it.

Or he'll bust

open your glory hole

like nobody's business.

[Suspense music

builds up to

soft rock]

We should turn these.

I ain't gonna

manufacture or purvey

anything that

I won't ingest

into my own sweet self.

Look you, here.

How you gonna call

that a controlled substance?

Well, the government do.

Look at the bud

structure on it.

The crystal density?

The smell of them turpins.

You can't

synthesize that.

That is nature's delivery

system for goodness.

Distilled into

a pure form.

It glides down

into your belly and blooms

into a feeling of peace.

In a world beset by evil.

That world is gonna

be there, no matter

how much grass you smoke.

Now look here. You

wanted to build the f***in'

Taj Mahal to hydroponics.

Well?

And you done it.

But you know what you

was getting into.

And he sure as sh*t

ain't going away.

Brady,

My mind's working on it.

[Soft country music]

Hey ya, Sharon.

Where she at?

Oh, she's

in her usual spot.

Hi, Joe.

Brady.

Hey, Momma.

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