IN GREECE ONLY THE MEN WORRY. REALLY?
Today I bought worry beads. Now the man who helped us in an antique store said I should not get them that they were for men and the Greek women do not worry; it is the man who worries and frees the woman for other things. I said,” Yes, but I worry all of the time and if I get these worry beads I may not worry. You see in my culture EVERYONE worries.” He just shook his head and said ok. I wanted to get the ivory ones at a bigger price, believe me. But then, I thought that if I bought worry beads from a poor elephant that had to loose his life over the beads I would worry even more, so I settled on camel bone. Yeah, sure, there are no camels in Greece. They are probably cow or sheep bones, but to tourists if you say camel bones, well, now you’re talking exotic.
In Greece, 85% of the men have worry beads in their pockets and would not think of leaving home without them. Ever since I bought the worry beads, I saw drivers using their beads when riding in city busses (high seating). I saw the men flipping them and moving them one by one in slow motion. Men flip their beads while sitting and talking with each other. I think it is an unconscious habit. It is interesting how one becomes more aware of some things in a culture when you learn about it. In the buying process, I even stepped away from the store in thought and turned to go back in to get the beads. What an important decision. Now the entrepreneur told me that it was for the man and I just shrugged and smiled and took my beads out into the world. Within ten minutes I kid you not, Skip had them and was just like all the Greek guys. He has them in his pocket and flipping, and swinging them and really enjoying; I thought they were mine, but they are Skip’s. The man in the store imparted important Greek Culture to me and I wanted to give it to you. Remember fellows it does take practice to flip the beads certain ways to remove your anxiety and worries.
We spent the day roaming around the city of Athens. We had coffee; we shopped. We had lunch; we shopped. We spent some time in a lovely park; we shopped. We had Ouzo; we shopped. We had pastry; we shopped. Pretty soon everything looked the same; still we shopped. We did not get a lot of things, just spiritual and old things, things that are light in weight and high in price. Oh, I shouldn’t reveal that because it is not all true. We did make sure to get all of you an evil eye. If we run out, we will have to come back to Turkey, Egypt or Greece. Maybe we can pick up some in downtown L.A. In any case, just put you hand up to bad Karma and it will not enter your space. There has been so much history to absorb and so little time. We have come to realize that if we spent the rest of our lives studying history, we would run out of time. We are going to work on the here and now. We will look at what we have before us and we also have come to realize that the here and now is a lifetime of study and explorations.
Tonight chocolate bars and cookies from the countryside, FYI the cookies are melt in your mouth awesome. One was smothered in apricot jam and rolled in nuts. OMG!!
Sheilaclapkin's Blog; 