It's Greek to Me

A Personal Post on a Family Trip to Greece

My family, Rachel, Ellie, and I just returned from a wonderful trip to Greece. As a history lover, it’s been on my bucket list for years, so when Rachel asked where I’d like to go for a 50th birthday trip, I jump at the chance to see Greece. Here are the highlights.

This trip was a very welcome break after a boatload of travel, book talks, VoteVets democracy work, etc. We all in unplugged, minimized social media intake, and tried to pay attention to world events, while focusing on family time. It was awesome.

We started in Athens and our first visit was to the Acropolis (top of city) and the Parthenon. What a remarkable place, imbued with a sense of history and gravity, it left me provoked to think about the past and the present. From this patch of land sprouted a judiciary that resembles our own, and an ancient form of democracy that inspired future democratic experiments. This stop provided an opportunity to reflect on the democratic form of government––a shifting of power from the few to the many––as well as think through the dangers American democracy faces, repeating the errors committed by the ancient (classical) Greeks. Hubris, overreach, corruption, the alienation of friends and allies, infighting, and the inability to face-down external threats brought down Athens and ended this early democracy.

Next we visited Delphi… I didn’t need an oracle to see the dangers facing the United States and the world.

Then we were off to Crete to see an even more ancient Minoan civilization and get some time on the water, hiking, and relaxation.

Finally, we went to Santorini. I didn’t get all the fuss about it until seeing the island with my own eyes. The place is singular and magical. Imagine an ancient volcano in the sea with its top blown off and the crater filled with water. Only about two-thirds of the volcano’s rim rises above sea level and the human settlements are sprinkled along the rim on the surface and in caves. Santorini is stunning.

We also visited what, some say, may have been the origin of the myth of the lost city of Atlantis, Akrotiri. This site was discover in the 20th century after an earthquake. It is well preserved because an eruption around 1600 B.C.E. buried the city in ash. Akrotiri has three-story building, plumbing, and a sewage system. No bad for nearly four thousand years ago.

I often get asked about dealing with the constant chaos and malignancy of Trumpism and a dangerous world. I highly recommend some sort of break, even if it’s a weekend, to give some breathing room to reflect on what matters and gather your strength. In the military, I found that there were plenty of stretches of intense activity, so you find a moment to take a rest, you must, in order to reenergize and deal with the next challenge.

I hope you all had/have a moment of rest!

P.S. I discovered I can read Greek. The Russian alphabet is almost entirely a copy of the Greek alphabet.