Temenos: DIY home improvement

The ideas for home improvement flow like Messenian tsikoudia, tempered by the reality of budget constraints. A lot of work completed on the property is a matter of sweat labor--digging out rocks (a six-year-long undertaking), making saucers around the trees I've planted, pruning, and cleaning up.

Assessing the situation

As for the house and propety, a few things are on the horizon: a fence along the road and a gate for the driveway are the most expensive. I resist the idea of a fence but everyone tells me that good fences make good neighbors. And they keep out the gypsies...and the wild boar.

Grasping my hoe--with neither implication nor repercussion

There is also the constant threat of roaming wild boars, which come at night and make havoc, digging through the hard pan with their rugged snouts. But I can only laugh at the thought that a fence will repel any thieves, after having seen my daughter, a track and field star, compete in the high jump.

On alcohol

For many years I have been deeply moved and inspired by the words and insights of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Although I am not a Buddhist, I am increasing drawn toward a non-deistic orientation that places the Self in its proper context. Religion may well be the opiate of the masses, but Buddhism is more philosophy and right-living than "religion" in the Western sense of the word.

The world is desperate for the kind of loving kindness, compassion, and wisdom embodied in TNH's life work. The diminutive monk. now in his 90s and stricken with a stroke in 2017, is very much alive in the minds of those who seek his teachings. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr., lauded by the likes of the Dalai Lama, Thomas Merton, and the poet Robert Lowell, he is recognized worldwide as an advocate for peace and reconciliation: his impact on me increases with each book I read, each lecture I hear (on the Internet), and I find more and more people who are drawn to his wisdom and practice. He has demonstrated a certain humanity for eighty years. I am grateful to have found his writings, and even more so because my dear loving wife made the first gift of his writings for me at a crossroad in my life. This makes the connection even more special.

He writes poignantly and simply about alcohol and drugs, subjects to which I am hardly a stranger. I would be a fool and hypocrite to impose my values on anyone. In the work I'm reading now (on the beach each day, slowly and methodically), titled Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thây writes:

“Alcohol abuse is one of the main symptoms of the malaise of our times. We know that those who are addicted to alcohol need to abstain one hundred percent….To stop drinking one glass of wine a week, even if it has not brought us any harm, is a deep practice, the insight of someone who knows that everything we do is for our ancestors and all future generations. I think the use of drugs by so many young people could be stopped with this kind of insight” (p. 107).

I am guilty

I suppose we are all works in progress--or as much as we choose to be. I am guilty--perhaps more than most, and particularly in this rambling 2019 blog--of violating Buddhism's Fourth Precept:

Aware of suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I vow to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I vow to learn to speak mindfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope.

And with these words I say "sorry" to those I have likely offended, firends and family alike, whose values and belief systems--if not their political preferences--are different than my own.

More than one root

"But can a person have two spiritual roots at the same time? Can both of them learn Christianity and Buddhism and practice both traditions? We know that when someone does not have any root, he or she will suffer tremendously [my emphasis]. But what about the question of having more than one root?" (p. 99).

I sense that my small sprinkling of readers are rolling their eyes, and justifiably so. The ramblings of a lapsed believer. So let's return to life in Messenia--in pictures and words.

Running in the valley--nothing out there but me and the flora and fauna

A handshake and a promise

Last night I found the Albanian painter, sitting at a cafeneion in the village, making his frappe/coffee last an eternity.

"Hello friend." We shook hands.

"What time are we going to the paint store tomorrow to choose a color stain? But before we start, we need to agree on a price."

"My work will be good. You will be very satisfied. Let me show you some pictures." He pulled out his phone, found his Facebook [the scourge of humanity! but that's just my opinion], and proceeded to show me a small porfolio of the houses he had painted recently.

"I'm certain your work will be masterful. But before we begin, I ask again: we both need to understand the price for the entire work."

"Are you buying the materials?" I nodded. "Well then, 100 euros for the two-day job."

It violates everyone's principle of not paying an Albanian more than 30 or 40 euros a day, a distastful commentary on the well-heeled West. But to hell with everyone else. I can afford it--and he needs to eat.

So we are on for Thursday/Friday.

Morning run

I gave myself a break and drove down the mountain and parked at the big beach before any cars had arrived. I set off and ran the valley loop, which is mostly flat and mostly shaded on the east side, at least until 8:30. Six miles later I was at the beach, swimming a half mile parallel to the beach--after a half-mile of floundering, I started wonder what I would do if someone nabbed my clothes. It would be a funny thing to drive home in the buff--of course they would have gotten my car keys, too. The run through the village, on the other hand, would have been memorable for the men at the cafeneion.

Some photos from today's morning run.