Roots

The woods are lovely

Dark and deep

 But I have promises to keep

  And miles to go before I sleep

  And miles to go before I sleep

  Robert Frost

 I leave next week for a visit to my islands

 A day or two in the Piraeus to visit a good friend

 Then it is a downhill walk to catch the first of a number of ferrys

 No visiting relatives now.....no museums or monuments

 Of course there are a few buildings out there especially on Aegina.

 But the Parthenon or the monasteries at Meteora will not be seeing me this year.

  Friends made over the years will occupy my time.  Friends who communicate through Facebook since their written English is so choppy.  My written Greek is non existent so it works.

 Friends and the sights of the islands.  From the main port of Aegina,  looking back at the mainland,  The mountains of the Peloponnese seem to rise out of the water.

Hydra with its donkeys and no taxis but a beautiful crescent harbor. I always run into a bunch of old Greeks from New Jersey arguing over whatever there is to argue.   And on and on.

 I have long wondered how we can know where we are going unless we know from whence we came.   I have been most fortunate to find out.

So MOL will do most nicely till my June return.  Some would say it will be improved.

Yia Sas

Kalo Paschka, dear friend, and travel well!

Beautifully said, author.  Have a wonderful trip!

From Naflio Greece

How fares Odysee # 11 so far............it just does not get any better

Economy slightly improved.........there is a brightness and optomism now...not seen in years

My best friend went out.....that means left the country for three years.  She worked for one in Austria and two in Germany.  Panayotta saved her money. came home to the Piraeus.  She opened a coffee shop. Like Greece needs another coffee shop.

But then again, one branch of my family grows olives......and before that tobacco.

Too difficult to ask in Greek why the conversion.

Dance under the stars @author. Drink Retsina.  Makes me think of that Joni Mitchell line, "and we'll laugh and toast to nothing and smash our empty glasses down."

Morganna said:
Dance under the stars @author. Drink Retsina.  Makes me think of that Joni Mitchell line, "and we'll laugh and toast to nothing and smash our empty glasses down."

 The late Telly Savalas........actually Aristotelly,  once described imbibing Retsina as

drinking a dead cat.  I like it. Skys are so clear here every night that one can spend all evening dancing.  Human kindness is overflowing.  My island Aegina, population 1,200.00 has no police force as there is no crime.

Or maybe you can start a flashmob dance in Maplewood when you return. Nice addition to Maplewoodstock.

There's a sirtaki danced by a fun indigenous group from up North, with a didgeridoo - have you seen it? Perhaps @marksierra can help me find and post it. 

Yasou from the Gold Coast, Author! A friend recently returned from Greece and grumbled about how cold it was, compared to here (days here are mid-20s and nights are only just thinking about needing to close doors/windows, needing a light blanket).  But I bet the air is clearer!

joanne said:
There's a sirtaki danced by a fun indigenous group from up North, with a didgeridoo - have you seen it? Perhaps @marksierra can help me find and post it. 
Yasou from the Gold Coast, Author! A friend recently returned from Greece and grumbled about how cold it was, compared to here (days here are mid-20s and nights are only just thinking about needing to close doors/windows, needing a light blanket).  But I bet the air is clearer!

 I did see a group that may be the one. Is this it?

Djuki Mala they're in my town this week. 

I'm ready to search for a folk dancing group! Went to a great one in the city after a concert of Bularian singers, advertised as the most beautiful voices on the planet. One of the most exuberant line dances had us pulling so fast left and right that I felt I was spinning off the planet.

Watching the scene from Zorba brought tears to my eyes, remembering the music from a coffee house in the Village, the Feenjon.

I thought this thread was about Roots in Summit!

jeffl said:
I thought this thread was about Roots in Summit!

 Plenty of the grape here Jeff.......even McDonalds sells liquor

joanne said:
There's a sirtaki danced by a fun indigenous group from up North, with a didgeridoo - have you seen it? Perhaps @marksierra can help me find and post it. 
Yasou from the Gold Coast, Author! A friend recently returned from Greece and grumbled about how cold it was, compared to here (days here are mid-20s and nights are only just thinking about needing to close doors/windows, needing a light blanket).  But I bet the air is clearer!

 DayS do seem a little cooler than usual.   MANY LOCAL STILL WEARING LIGHT AND MEDIUM JACKETS.  my MISTER rOGERS SWEATER AND MESSAGE tEE sHIRTS WORK FOR ME.

author said:
 DayS do seem a little cooler than usual.   MANY LOCAL STILL WEARING LIGHT AND MEDIUM JACKETS.  my MISTER rOGERS SWEATER AND MESSAGE tEE sHIRTS WORK FOR ME.

 Added note to Jeff...........from computer so old there is no lettering on the keyboard...an Aegina Island special

Several years ago I was gortunate enough to hear Alex Hailey speak in Montclair.  He told us that before he decided to name his book  ROOTS he consisered naming it "Before this anger"

Either works for me

I am back in the States almost a month now........have the need to give thanks and hope for the future.

To my Mother.......Olga Tsirikos who started me on this journey so many years ago

She was seven years old before she spoke a word of English

She was the immigrant kind

And to my Grandmother..........Eleni Stathakos

She was the daughter of a judge in Athens

She law clerked for him before marrying and coming here

She taught me of the Family of Man

She taught me of my obligation to leave this world a better place than the one I inherited

She taught me that in my life time I would be called to battle

Some of these battles you can not possibly win

These are the ones you must fight

"When I was a little baby

my mama said hey son

travel where you will and grow to be a man

and sing what must be song, poor boy

sing what must be sung"

Hoyt Axton

Greenback Dollar

Now my middle grandson asks me to teach him fencing

His parries and thrusts are a thing of beauty

But the speed of his blade when he lunges for a touch are something I have never seen in one

so young.

We talk and it becomes increasingly clear he will not lead an "ordinary"life

My daughter,   his Mother sees the inevitable

Soon I will teach him of the Family of Man

"So travel where you will

and grow to be a man

and sing what must be sung poor boy

sing what must be sung"