At Easter time, 1979, my mother and I traveled back to Vourthonia. Musical soundtrack can accompany an occasion in life, just as in film. Vangelis, in collaboration with Irene Pappas, had just released the soundtrack for that visit.  Click the image to the left to read a bit about the album; better yet find the music and listen.

The lamb had been over the fire since morning, and was now on the table. Feta, salads, and the best olives in the world were there too. That music was playing from the open doors of an old VW Beetle parked near where we were sitting–my mother, many villagers, and me. That god gave safe passage.

My father, the Yankee my mother had met, married, and shared life’s adventures with for more than two decades, was now transported somewhere else. Feasting in Vourthonia, I remember hoping Hermes was  guiding his passage, wherever he had gone. The pantheon of possibilities was with me that day, and it was then and there I decided: embrace passage.  Passage was, somehow, the point, even if I had no clue what that meant.

But there was plenty else to think about. I was 16, and Easter is about new beginnings, and the odes were carrying me forward.