Harry and Julia Explain the World, Part II: The Deep

If you are my friend, you've probably heard my theories and feelings on the philosophy, or rather attitude, that I like to call The Deep. The Deep is a very complex concept - a Nirvana-esque state, if you will. Being Deep consists of talking about things that amaze you because you don't fully understand them (and attributing these things to forces that are almost spiritual or intangible... forces that only you - and perhaps a few other blessed ones - are insightful enough to grasp) while trying to woo your listener; after all, not everyone can reach such wonderful secrets of life. Now, everyone has talked Deeply - probably during their teenage years. Yesterday, however, I found an epidemic of The Deep. I promise you: it's one beautiful Deep Moment after another. Ladies and Gentlemen: Before Sunset (2004)


Watch it, and you'll see what I mean.

Here are a few gems:
Jesse: Do you believe in reincarnation?
Celine: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
Jesse: Yeah, right. Well, most people, you know, a lot of people talk about past lives and things like that, you know? And even if they don't believe it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right?
Celine: Yeah.
Jesse: OK, well this was my thought: 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there's, like, two million people on the planet. Now there's between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? 'Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth's time. You know, so at best we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking... I mean, is that why we're so scattered? You know, is that why we're all so specialized?
Celine: I don't know. Wait a minute, I'm not sure... I don't...
Jesse: Yeah, hang on, hang on. It's a, it's a totally scattered thought. It... which is kind of why it makes sense.

Celine: You know, I have this awful paranoid thought that feminism was mostly invented by men so that they could like, fool around a little more.

Celine: I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.


Priceless.