Temenos
2018
Our family blog now careens
toward its tenth birthday. Ten years ago, in the fall of 2008, we were
preparing for a family adventure—a half-year sabbatical in rural southern
Greece. Ann had arranged for a teaching sabbatical, while Jonathan found a
long-term, freelance editorial project.
Our kids (then ages nine,
eleven, and thirteen) packed their bags, said goodbye to their local friends,
and slowly wrapped their minds around the notion of attending a one-room school
in a seaside village that was even
smaller than their own Maine community.
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| Limni, Evia, 2012 |
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| Crusader castle in Methoni |
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| Hydra island, looking toward the Argolid |
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| Hydra harbor |
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| Monemvasia, SE Peloponnese |
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| Flying the colors |
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| Parthenon, February 2009 |
This blog was created in
order to share the course of that 2009 journey with family and friends.
We arrived in Finikounda, a
sleepy fishing village in the rural southwestern corner of the Peloponnese, in
late February 2009. And so, our adventure began.
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| Looking west toward Finikounda from our liter-sized house |
If you like, you can scroll back to that
earlier time in this blog.
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A
necessary aside––
Why “temenos”? This old Greek word embodies several meanings. For our family and friends, the word temenos means “sanctuary” or "sacred space"—rather than
its other meanings of “temple” or “shrine.”
In a broader sense, “temenos”
refers to the sanctuary that one finds in the embrace of close friends and family. Temenos is as much a state of mind as it is a state of being.
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| Akropolis, 2012 |
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| Perimeter wall, ancient Messene, 2009 |
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The
enduring connection––
In 2012 our family of five
returned to Greece to complete a journey that was cut short by the illness of
Jonathan’s mother in the spring of 2009.
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| Western Crete |
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| Southern Crete |
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| Living the good life--part 1 |
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| Continuing the good life--part 2 |
So, by way of content, this
blog includes our family’s 2012 trip back to Greece as well as all the
subsequent trips since, including:
Jonathan’s 2013 purchase and
slow renovation of a dilapidated farm building in a stunningly bucolic
setting—tucked alongside an olive grove on the mountain above Finikounda, looking west across the Mediterranean.
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| This old house, 2013 |
The renovations continued along with an extended stay with daughter Lucia (then age 15) in
the summer of 2014.
And then Jonathan’s solo travels in 2015 and 2016.
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| Lucia and Jonathan on Spetses, 2014 |
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| Northern Evia |
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| Spetses island coastline |
And then Jonathan’s solo travels in 2015 and 2016.
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| Extreme makeover, 2013-2015 |
And finally, the celebration
of our 25th wedding anniversary on the island of Spetses—with our daughter Nia
as our “chaperone.” Jonathan’s sister Dyan, along with Stuart and the twins,
met us in Finikounda.
And then we all met up on Spetses for our celebration in the
birthplace of our grandmother, Eustathia, who was born on the island in 1899
and left for America in 1912. This was a special trip that we will always
remember—spent together with family we love in our family’s patrida (mother/fatherland).
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| Jonathan and his favorite sister, Dyan, 2014 |
And best of all, Ann and Nia
stayed in our little Peloponnesian house for the first time.
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Jonathan is the “I” of this
blog in 2018. By my calculation, this is my 17th trip to Greece—an ongoing love
affair that began back in 1973 as a summer student camper in the western
Peloponnese.
I returned to Ionian Village,
the summer camp, the following summer, despite the percolating political unrest
that beset Greece and the region. Revolution was in the air, led by increasingly
strident student protests in Athens. It was a time of great tumult in
Greece—democracy, which in 1967 had fallen prey to a CIA-encouraged military
coup d’état and subsequent junta led by a group of feckless army colonels on a
neo-fascist model, was now reasserting itself.
A failed coup in Cyprus in
1974 was followed by a Turkish invasion of that island-nation (and its ultimate
occupation, which continues in part today) and a tragicomic military
mobilization in Greece. Fighter jets buzzed urban areas and tanks were on the
streets of the major cities along with military conveys and special army units
seeking fighting-age men—or boys. This was my first of three successful
attempts at avoiding the military draft in Greece.
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I returned to Greece, five years
after the restoration of democracy, in 1979 as a student of the classics at
College Year in Athens. An American living abroad in a pulsating European
capital, I learned to speak credible (but imperfect) Greek in short order, met
Greek contemporaries and forged lifelong friendships.
Following college graduation,
I was back in Athens in 1981, having obtained employment with an
English-language publisher specializing in post-Byzantine studies. I began my
career as a book editor in Greece and continued to work in publishing in the
United States. I also cultivated a love of Greek literature (ancient and
modern), food, dance, music, and all manner of folkways. Hellas was clearly
getting under my skin.
After several years of working
in book publishing in New York City, I moved to a homestead in rural coastal
Maine—itself a decision borne directly of my Greek experience—but managed a
trip to Greece at least every other year…in what became a predictable routine
that began way back in 1973.
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| 25 years of marital (chocolate) bliss |
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| Evyenia (Nia) and Jonathan--card-carrying Greek citizens as of 2017 |
Over time a place can seep
into your thinking, dreaming, and life aspirations. That a place and its
culture, language, and folkways can gradually consume an individual is probably
its own study.
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This
year’s journey––
For all the times I’ve
traveled to Greece—alone and with family—I have never brought a friend along for the ride.
In this way, 2018 will be
different.
My friend Peter and I met in
Pembroke in the late 1980s. In 1991 we were both fire fighter recruits at the
Maine Fire Academy. We have both served on the Pembroke Fire Department for
nearly 30 years (he as Assistant Chief, me as Captain). Together we've fought a lot of fires, responded to multiple accidents and incidents, and all along honed our firefighting skills.
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| Jonathan and Peter--rookie firefighters in 1991 |
We have also watched our kids
grow up and leave home, seen our parents age and pass. We have gotten to know
each other better over the years, having spent more time together—hiking, sailing,
camping, as well as fighting fires. My friend is expert boat builder and a highlyskilled carpenter, a
knowledgeable outdoorsman, and a soft-spoken fellow traveler who shares my
curiosity about things—and especially a passion for the ocean.
Now we’re traveling together
to Greece! I have the unique and singular opportunity to share a beautiful and
endearing place with an old friend.
So, here’s our story in words
and pictures.
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| Emmanuel the sun god |
Safe travels, come home safe & sound & full of joy.
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