The First Day: Albert Camus Meets Crazy Horse in the Kingdom

(from Act VII) CH: Why did they want you dead? What crime had you committed? SOCRATES: Oh, Socrates responds, with a little laugh, my crime seems to have been something like yours. I was guilty of being me! They said, he adds, his features becoming serious as he realizes his response does not answer Crazy Horse's question, that I was corrupting the young men of Athens. And that I spoke disrespectfully of the gods. CH: It is not good not to respect the gods, Crazy Horse observes. Nor should one corrupt the youth of one's country. SOCRATES: Does it not depend upon what gods one worships, Tushunca Uitco? And can it be corrupting to carry on a disinterested inquiry into what is true and what false? To talk freely and at ease with young men, without dissembling, of virtue? of friendship? of courage? CH: Ahh, I see! Crazy Horse replies. So you were a philosopher, like my friend Albert, then! Is this why you did not try to escape? Because you had done no wrong? SOCRATES: Just as you could not imagine living in a cage, Tushunca Uitco, I could not imagine living a life in exile, in a land that was not my home, and condemned not to speak on behalf of what is true. I had to be me. I wanted to live truthfully and, if I could not, well, I preferred to die. So I drank the hemlock brew they offered me. That's the "bottom line," as they say, Socrates concludes with a broad smile. CH: You seem to feel no anger, no bitterness, even. Have you been here so long you no longer remember how it was? Crazy Horse asks. SOCRATES: I'm not sure I understand your question, Tushunca Uitco? What do you mean "How it was"? After all, the man who truly seeks virtue cannot be harmed, can he? CH: I mean, Crazy Horse explains, beginning to feel that he had somehow, for reasons he did not comprehend, asked a ridiculous question, when you were killed. When you arrived here. SOCRATES: Well, I was very happy to arrive here. Weren't you? CH: Well, yes. Of course I was, But . . . (Preview 2 of 3) CAMUS: Earlier today, Albert Camus here interrupts, looking at Socrates, Tushunca Uitco and I had been discussing injustice on earth and, more specifically, why the Great Spirit allows such injustice, why sometimes the unjust even thrive, at the expense of the just. SOCRATES: Ahhhh, I see. And I can sense as well the philosopher you were, Albert Camus. CAMUS: Pardon me if I'm wrong, but you speak the word "philosopher" almost as if you scorn philosophy. Or philosophers? SOCRATES: Do I? Socrates asks with a chuckle. If I did, I apologize. CAMUS: But please, Socrates! Don't be coy. What do you find so amusing about my being a philosopher? Or about our talking of justice and injustice, sometimes in the company of others, as well. SOCRATES: I'm sorry, Albert. It's just that your raising these questions evokes memories of my life as a mortal on earth. CH: Did you not discuss such matters with the young men of Athens? Crazy Horse now interjects. SOCRATES: Oh, indeed I did, Tushunca Uitco. The subject of why one should live a virtuous life when many of those who do not thrive, often at the expense of those who are virtuous, was often on our minds, and our tongues. CAMUS: So? Did you laugh at the young men who asked questions on this subject? Albert Camus asks. SOCRATES; Oh no. Quite to the contrary. Those who came in good faith to inquire and to learn were a joy to me. It's just that, even then, even in my aging and vulnerable body, I found the answer to such questions to be obvious. Saying this, Socrates glances from Albert Camus to Crazy Horse with a slight smile on his lips and shrugs his shoulders. CAMUS: Bewildered, the two men glance at each other before Albert Camus declares, I guess it's pretty obvious that what's obvious to you isn't so obvious to us. Please explain yourself. (Preview 3 of 3) SOCRATES: Gladly, but only if you will sit down and invite me to sit down with you! Socrates responds, again with a smile. After all, while we talk are we not failing to consider the glorious skies surrounding us? Isn't this glory the chief reason why we find ourselves together on this ledge at this hour? With this, Socrates indicates with one broad sweep of his right arm the sky open now before them on all horizons and over their heads. CH: Let us sit, then! Crazy Horse declares.