Memories of Chania

So now looking back, Chania has become more than just a place "over there".


It has metamorphosed into another dimension.




I feel like I have traveled through an artist's pallet and experienced colors, shapes and textures beyond the realm of common knowledge.




Because of my visit there I now feel a conection to my past that I had not known before, and an awareness of a relationship with people I didn't even know ever lived - much less that they were somehow part of my own family.


Yet I know we are not really the same, we American tourists and those Cretan craftsmen. There are differences between us. We come from different backgrounds and represent different cultures and we speak different languages. Most importantly of all - on some deep, dark level we fear each other.

So we are aliens. They are. I am. But here we sit down to eat together and drink with each other. Here we learn to sing each others songs. Then we dance.


It is so awkward. Maybe someday we will learn to talk.

Not in America. Not any time soon.
But in Crete there is hope, and people are talking about that.
And perhaps Knossos, the birthplace of civilization, has another trick up its sleeve.

Maybe you could meet me there.



© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
Photos made with Canon Elura 70 on SD card