A descendant of the Greek island of Crete once shared with me this bit of pithy Greek philosophy: “If you want to make the gods laugh, just tell them your plans.”
As a planning addict and eternal optimist, I hadn’t put much stock in that ancient aphorism; but a trip to Greece may have confirmed its validity.
This was a trip that commenced with a commitment in August of 2019 for an itinerary that would play out in September of 2020; but the world-wide Covid pandemic demanded a 52-week delay in our plans.
And then, when we set sail this September in a classic 50-foot wooden motor-yacht, strong winds kicked up from the north and sent us seeking safe harbor along the Peloponnese Peninsula. Four days later we were still within a two-hour drive from our departure marina in Athens, with plans scuttled to see much of the Greek islands.
We substituted land excursions for island exploration. Rather than submerging in the wine hued waters of the Aegean Sea, we took deep dives into the Peloponnese region’s history dating back to the 13th Century B.C.: Minoans, Myceneans and Phoenicians; later Persians, Romans and Byzantines. And others.
We learned that while Greece is an old culture, it is a young country. Its hard-fought independence from the Ottoman Empire was formalized with a new constitution in the village of Nea Epidauros, just up the hill from where our boat was safely docked for five nights.
The display in the village museum emphasizes that the constitution of Greece is patterned after the constitutions of France and the United States. It was adopted by the country’s first National Assembly in December of 1821…..just 200 years ago this year…..and 34 years later than the United States of America formalized its principles for democratic government.
Looking at the US Constitution on display in the tiny neoclassical museum of Nea Epidauros made me proud of the USA. But then I began to wonder if the gods are laughing at those plans too…..the plans we had for this new nation in 1787.
JER
ALL OVER THE MAP 