Beware: Greeks Bearing Gifts

Anonymous My brother has several brightly colored signs along the lines of "Beware," "Caution," "High Voltage" etc. on the door to the extra room in our house that, until recently, served as his "workshop." Now, I don't know about "high voltage," but these warning signs are definitely deserved. Walk into that room at your own peril, and make sure you're wearing shoes! It is a treacherous maze of little bits of scrap metal, wire, wood shavings, pieces of plastic, and power tools. It is chaotic, a hazard to the barefoot, and drives my dad absolutely crazy. But it's not all bad. All you creative souls out there can probably relate... sometimes the most beautiful things come out of absolute mess. You see, my brother doesn't call himself this (preferring titles such as "mad scientist," "fix-it-guy" etc.), but he is an artist. In the midst of his crazy and clever inventions, his catapults and carrot guns, he turns small and seemingly worthless pieces of junk into objects of beauty. At the top of the stairs right now, is a wire sculpture of a tree. It snags your sleeve every time you walk by, but I love it. I have never seen a few stray pieces of metal looks so... alive. He turns hard edges into graceful lines, rough surfaces into interesting texture, sharp wine bottles into useful glasses (that, granted, still make me nervous...). Now, why am I writing about this? Maybe it is because I am going home, and, as such, toward home my thoughts have turned. But also because I think that this is an apt metaphor, for Greece and for life. Dr. Finitsis has mentioned more than once the miraculous nature of the "chaotic" Greek systems. Living with them takes a certain amount of faith, faith he's not sure he has, and I'm not sure I could have on a long term basis either. I crave order, organization, and logic. But just as beauty comes forth from the chaos of the bonus room at my house, so to is there incredible beauty to surprise even the most casual traveler to Greece. Perhaps chaos is a part of the charm... like the (to us Americans) rather absurd lack of warning signs, caution tape, and safety barriers on the edges of ruins perched atop hundred foot cliffs. But really, all those warning signs end up doing is distracting us from the beauty of the view by preoccupying us with possible risks of enjoying it. Now, I as going to relate this further to our time in Greece, and to the experience of life in general, where, all to often I think, the risks distract us from the beauty. However, I will leave you to make the connections yourselves, because is is my last night in the beautiful and chaotic city of Athens, and, risking lack of sleep and sickness, I intend to enjoy it.