My Moment in Greece

Ted Charles
I have always loved the feeling and sense you get from touching something old. It is like reaching into the past, relating to the innumerable people before you that used or possessed the object. Ever since I took Professor Ihssen’s Eastern Orthodoxy class I was hoping to find an old icon of some kind in the flea markets of Athens. The combination of age and connection to a topic that I am interested in seemed to me to be combination that would help me better understand the Byzantine period. I mentioned this to the Professor and she hinted that it may not be an old icon that I was looking for, unless it is perhaps for the wrong reasons. She had known several people to purchase very nice ones for the sake of art rather than waiting for an icon to come to them. Professor Ihssen was supportive none the less, but the more I looked at icons in the market the more I realized that before I could find my answer through an icon I had to know what my question was. Why did I really want an icon? One day we stopped at a monastery store after visiting on the way to Delphi. I saw an icon of Saint John the Baptist on the shelf and everything clicked. I had done a project on Saint John in class and loved the story and imagery. This icon meant something to me. It was not expensive, old, or hand painted but the value it presented was personal and from my own perceptions and experiences. That is how we find meaning in things, our lives are filled with objects that only hold as much importance as we give them ideologically or through memories. It is easy to collect things, but much harder to find value in what you have.