Be Mediterranean

It’s always nice to be greeted and this morning my greeters were Mocha and a glimpse of the back foot and tail of the black cat on its way over the fence as I approached. Actually Mocha did a much better job of understanding what a greeting is all about as she stood her ground until I turned and saw her. I was watering my green buddies. And even then, she didn’t fly away immediately.

As my house cools down I’m sitting poolside watching my float glide around on the water. It’s tempting to get in now. Actually I think if I could I’d live in that pool! But I’ve decided to take an afternoon swim today. I was quite under the weather yesterday due to some food related reaction (not the lettuce one) which produced a skin rash and incredible fatigue. And so I’m easing into my day and allowing my body to relax until later, I’ll work inside on my movie script rewrite this morning and swim a little later, maybe with a nap in between.

I like the way the Greeks use their day. When I would visit there, I noticed they were up to enjoy the day in the cool morning hours, a siesta at the warming part of the day, then after four o’clock as it cooled down again shops would open up and everyone would be busy preparing for dinner which was often at 8 pm or after. Very civilized I thought. The climate I live in is a Mediterranean climate and I’ve been drifting towards the way they live their day which takes into account the sunrise and sunset. Maybe all but the naps and early rising. But now I’m beginning to take that on as a project.

In fact, I can copy the family I visited on my first trip. The Philosophy Department secretary was Greek and her extended family still lived in Greece; she invited me to come there as she knew I was studying Ancient Greek Philosophy; we had become friends as well and saw each other outside of the academic setting. Her family home included her husband (who was from Kansas), her father and mother, and her aunt. The house they lived in all together had a communal kitchen and eating area, a pool, but the upstairs was for my friend and her family; it even had a living room just for them. I visited there many times and learned from her mother and aunt how to make pomegranate jelly, baklava, and some other Greek food I enjoy. Her father had planted an orchard in their large backyard from which we picked at will and made delicious edibles!

I can remember her invitation: she was at our house and Ron and I were sitting at the table. I don’t remember why she was there but it doesn’t matter. Before she left she squatted down in between our chairs and said “Susan, why don’t you come and visit me in Greece this Summer. I’m going this year with my son Adonis to visit my family there!” I looked at Ron and with his customary shrug which meant “you go but don’t include me in your travel plans” (he hated travel) I got the ok to plan a trip there!

She was going for the Summer but said she’d be sure to meet me at the airport in Athens whenever I came in; and so she did. Her cousin had a dental practice there and her office was attached to her apartment and so we spent a day or so in Athens, eating by the Parthenon, going to the fish market. Then after a day or so, we took a bus to a very small place where her uncle and aunt had built a vacation home; it was on the sea in a place where Greeks enjoyed the seaside without the tourist traffic. We’d walk in the mornings - the whole family - with our dental floss and enjoy the waters there while we flossed our teeth! Her uncle would snorkle for baby octopus to eat for lunch and as the day warmed we’d walk back to their home, have a bite to eat and cozy down for a nap. My friend and I slept on two cots on the backside porch which faced an open area with goats roaming around. One of our tasks was to walk to the little shop there to purchase some terra cotta bowls of fresh yogurt to take back to the house. Then a nap. Uncle would wake us in the late afternoon with a couple of espressos and we would begin preparing for a feast from their garden with wine and that wonderful Greek music which might issue in a dance or two. This was how I acclimated to the Jet lag. It was a very memorable part of my journey which had only just begun. My friend and her son would accompany me back to Athens after a couple of days where we booked a boat ticket to Paros, one of the Cyclades islands. There we stayed the night. The next day I caught a boat by myself to Delos - an unpopulated island with only relics of the past which I thoroughly enjoyed - as my friend and her son said good-bye and returned to Athens. I would see them a few weeks later after my visits to Mykonos, Thera, and Crete! I loved what I saw so much I returned the next year by myself to take in Athen’s great museum, Delphi, Sparta, Naphlio where I visited Agamemnon’s fortress, took in a play at the ancient outside ampitheater and visited Aschlepius’s healing grounds on the way. And, of course, another trip to Crete - magical place of all places.

I don’t sleep on the back porch but I do have a hammock, but there’s no little shop that sells the fresh goat milk yogurt! Maybe that’s ok; I have whole foods I can go to. I don’t have the sea and my pool is not a salt water pool, but I can enjoy the waters anyway and floss my teeth in my bathroom. And so the small lunch and the nap will await me today. Also today I will fix myself a little espresso! And this Fall I will clean up my garden boxes and begin to plant some veggies so that what I eat will come from there. As my eating tends to be more or less Mediterranean, the rest of my life can follow along.

Full circle, Mocha just returned to put her red feet in the spilllway and the sunlight is approaching my chair. Time for Act 2.