It's All About Perspective

1.2 miles. That’s how far I lived from America’s First Wave Pool (full disclosure: it’s slightly disputed with some other place). One point two miles. Google Maps says that would take 23 minutes to walk. For the first 13 years of my life I lived 23 minutes (walking distance) away from a water park. When you factor in that I used to ride my bike EVERYWHERE, including the rest of the recreation center around the Point Mallard Water Park, the time it would take to get there would quickly diminish.

Do you know that in my entire life, not just the 13 years I lived in that house, I have only been to Point Mallard three times? They are as follows:

1. One of the last days of Kindergarten our teachers walked us to Point Mallard. From the school it was only a 0.8-mile journey. Google Maps says it takes 16 minutes to walk that, but let’s be honest, there’s no way a flock of kindergartners with their tiny, wobbly legs made it that distance in 16 minutes. At 25, I’m still surprised they would walk about three-dozen kids on the roads through a small forest to a water park! Of course we were only allowed in the kiddy pool. No water slides or Olympic pool swims and certainly no Wave Pool!
    
2. Going into fifth grade a friend invited me to go with him and his mother to Point Mallard one summer afternoon. This is the famous incident when I truly learned how pale I was. Without my loving mother reminding me to put on sunscreen, I got roasted and was miserable for about two days. My back was so blistered and itchy that I could barely sleep. I’ll never forget that my mom put me in the car and just drove around the city because that was the only way I could fall asleep. That’s love right there! I still greatly fear sunburns because of this one incident. I was truly miserable.  
    
3. The last time my presence graced Point Mallard was during middle school. I was in a summer band camp…. in middle school…. I didn’t want to be at it, but somehow I got signed up for it *cough* mom and dad *cough*. The band camp lasted a week, or maybe half a week. Each morning we practiced and every afternoon we went somewhere fun. One day they took us to Point Mallard Water Park for that afternoon’s activity.

And those are my three experiences. Why didn’t I go any other times you ask? I don’t know. It sounds like a cool place. I mean it’s no Disney World, but for North Alabama and for being within a quick drive from my house you would think I would have gone plenty of other times.

I found that we all suffer from this same issue no matter where we live. For my Harding friends, let me tell you this: I never went to Heber Springs. Let that sink in. Anyway, at the time of writing this, I’ve been up on the Acropolis of Athens to see the Parthenon a little over 20 times. That’s just been in the past seven years and the large bulk of those come from the last four years. In America, I live less than two hours from the Parthenon replica in Nashville, Tennessee and I finally saw it after I visited the real Parthenon in Greece three times! Does that make any sense?! 

I’m always surprised when I learn that many of my local Greek friends have never been to the sites I go to three times a year. Or if they’ve visited these places it was once, years ago. Many of them have only been on the Acropolis once or twice and more often than not it was when they were students.

Now I don’t think they are wrong for not going up there more often. I understand that I am the exception. Unless you are a tour guide, archaeologist or work at some random job (like me) you have no reason to pay 12 euros to go up to the Parthenon more than once every couple of decades. Even though I know this, it still surprises me. I guess it’s all about perspective.

Almost a month ago I had the day free. The group was on their way home from ancient Olympia. They wouldn’t arrive until almost 7:00 that night. I slept in a little and then jumped in the car to drive to ancient Elefsina. I’ve known about ancient Elefsina for years, even before I moved to Greece. It was home to the most famous mystery cult in ancient Greece. I’ve never been very proactive about going because I figured I’d have heard more about it by now. My assumption was that the site was going to basically be a sandbox. After nearly four years I’ve seen all the really big stuff in Greece, right?

I was wrong. Elefsina was massive! It had multiple layers to explore. Giant walls almost two stories high wrapped much of the site’s citadel. You could take paths down into deep cisterns that provided the city with water. Columns and foundations were left from many temples and propylaeum. This site was no sandbox!

The ruins were surrounded by a field and fenced in to protect it from the modern city that was begging to grow and spill over the fences. In fact, as I walked next to the massive ancient walls I was a mere 15 feet from the site fence. On the immediate other side of the fence was a narrow street. On the other side of the street was a building with a restaurant on the first floor and apartments on the second. I could see a family sitting on their apartment balcony as I walked through the multi-thousand year old city. They were so close to me, so close to the site! From their balcony they could easily throw a baseball into the ancient city – no something even heavier, they were that close! I thought to myself, “They see this everyday! They see ancient city walls and temple grounds from their bedroom! They are so close to REAL world history! It’s amazing!”

You can see the encroaching modern city of Elefsina. The ancient city walls are across the picture and one level below.

I started thinking about other places. Growing up in America I thought George Washington lived a long time ago. Now, after living in Greece and frequently traveling Israel, Turkey and Egypt where their respective histories span for thousands of years, I feel like I just missed George at the bus stop. We have this tendency to think about the last 500-700 years in near accurate time lengths, but often we flatten the ancient world’s timeline into one nice chunk. But it’s not, it’s much more vast than we initially give it credit. Let me give you two of my favorite examples and they both deal with ancient Egypt.

• The pyramids were hundreds of years old before Moses was born (approx. 1393 BC). Even before him, they were hundreds of years old when Abraham first showed up in Egypt (b. 1813 - d. 1638 BC)! So when you read about the enslaved Israelites gathering straw to make bricks, those bricks weren’t being used to build pyramids. The pyramids had been completed much earlier and the Egyptians had moved on to other things. Pyramids are a relic from the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC). (Some of these dates may be a little off, but we’re trying. Either way, you get the idea that massive amounts of time have passed.)
  
  
• Did you know that Cleopatra lived closer to the Space Age than the Pyramid Age? Think about that! It makes sense. She lived in the days of Julius Caesar, which puts here just a few decades before the BC/AD switch. That means she is roughly 2,000 years away from space travel. Conversely, she lived about 2,500 years after the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. We think of Cleopatra as Egyptian, which is true, but we unconsciously lump all of ancient Egypt together in our minds. It’s all about keeping perspective. Oh, speaking of which, here’s a little extra fun fact: The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest structure in the world from 2560 BC to 1311 AD when the Lincoln Cathedral in England surpassed it. That’s amazing!

HUGers from summer 2013 standing on the first set of blocks making up one of the Giza Pyramids.
Look at how large it is!

Perspective is a crucial aspect in understanding people and places. I’ve been to Egypt five times. Whether you’ve been or not, you’ve probably seen multiple pictures of the pyramids. What you don’t usually see is that the pyramids bump into modern day Cairo. Most pictures show them with the empty desert background. However, they are almost in the city! I’ve wondered, “Do the locals always look at them with amazement? Or is that just part of their daily drive like how I drive by a McDonalds or three everyday?”

I took this from our lunch stop in Cairo one day. See how close the Pyramid is!

Don’t believe my picture or my comment about the Giza Pyramid’s location? This website has pics of the Giza Pyramids (and other landmarks) from their usual picturesque spot and then from another angle to show you the reality.

If there’s a point to any of this it’s this: wherever you find yourself in life, there is always something worth marveling at. Maybe it’s the Pyramids of Giza. Maybe it’s America’s first wave pool in your backyard. Maybe it’s the people that have been put in your life. Regardless, I believe we have an obligation to keep things in perspective – to never lose our ability to marvel at the world around us, even if it becomes commonplace.

I don’t think about breathing often; I just do it. The air is there and I take it in. It rarely crosses my mind. However, the fact that I don’t think about it does not diminish its value. The problem is me. I have taken for granted that which I use everyday. That’s my fault. We must constantly fight the battle to not become jaded and to always marvel at the vast world around us.

If you would have told me four years ago that I would travel the ancient world regularly, I would have freaked out. I did freak out! I love this stuff! I couldn’t get over the idea that I would be going to all these old/famous/important places so often. Back then I wondered if it could ever grow old? How could it?! Don’t get me wrong. I still love it, but it has become commonplace and it's easy not to keep it in perspective. But listen to this: every four months I get a new group of students, people who are experiencing this stuff for the first time. Watching them marvel at it reminds me to marvel at it. It refreshes my perspective and takes me back. How great is that?!

I don’t know when or if I’ll ever go back to Point Mallard. I’m not a big waterpark guy, but I’ll gladly claim it as part of my heritage. America’s First Wave Pool was pretty much in my backyard for 13 years, and that’s pretty cool.

My second time to visit the Pyramids of Giza in the summer of 2011.

"We Are Still Pioneers."

We rolled back into Porto Rafti Thursday evening after a 4-day/3-night trip up through Northern Greece. This included stops at Delphi, Meteora, Vergina, Berea, Thessaloniki, Philippi, Dion and Thermopylae. To see all these places required a lot of driving. Did I say a lot, because I mean A LOT!

Greece is roughly the size of Alabama, my home state. The last day of our trip has us diving from Thessaloniki (only 30 miles from the border of Macedonia) all the way back to Porto Rafti (only 15 miles north of Attica’s southern most point). That means with no stops the final day is about 6 hours of pure driving.

Hear me out, 6 hours is not terrible at all! I know terribly long road trips. As a kid, my family used to take two-week long vacations by car all over America. My parents had divided the country into 5 parts corresponding to 5 trips. Before I detail these trips let me tell you one important fact: these weren’t fun trips. Well, they were fun, but not in the sense of waterparks and theme parks. No, they were educational- which was still fun…. most of the time. Here’s what I mean. I’ve been to every state east of the Rockies and almost all of their capitals by car. I’ve also been to pretty much every presidential library, boyhood home, birthplace, burial site, famous museums, natural wonders, monuments, quirky exhibits, etc. east of the Rockies. If it’s important to our nation’s history and it’s east of the Rockies, I’ve probably been there!

We did one trip each summer, staring after first grade for me and they went as follows:

1. I don’t believe the first one was two weeks. It was our baby trip, probably lasting a little over one week. From Alabama we drove to Washington D.C. and other places close by.
    
2. The next year we attacked all of New England. My family loves to tell a story of me from this trip. We arrived at our hotel in Freeport, Maine around midnight. As an 8 year-old, I was asleep/dead tired. My dad and sister asked the hotel receptionist how late L.L. Bean was open. When we were told it never closes, my bed time got pushed even further back as my family shook me awake and nearly threw water on me to get me up and going. Before I knew it, the four of us were exploring L.L. Bean at 1 am. I remember thinking those tents looked mighty enticing to crawl into a sleep. (Don’t be deceived; my family is always up for a crazy adventure!)
    
3. The next year was a trip up through the Midwest and even briefly into Canada- my first international experience.
    
4. The next year was a trip was out west, but not beyond the Rockies. This meant through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, on up into the Dakotas and so on until we looped all the way back home to Alabama. I’m particularly proud of this trip because we were going up to South Dakota where I knew Mount Rushmore was and my family wasn’t planning on visiting it! Honestly, we were hours away from it but as a kid I practiced my future PR persuasion tactics and kept telling them how I couldn’t believe we would go all the way to South Dakota by car and not see Mount Rushmore. It’s the same speech I give HUGers all the time over here: You didn’t come all this way to not (fill in the black with whatever they are thinking about skipping). Anyways, I pulled it off and we saw the four stone heads.

As I got older we would repeat the Washington trip a few times, the New England trip another time and even another somewhat repeat by driving up to Chicago and some surrounding states for a second time.

I love driving and riding in the car! I like to see where I’m at and how we got there. So during all of our many hours in a bus last week it got me to think about travel and roads. We live in a time where travel is so easy! So many barriers that kept man from traveling (or made it difficult) are falling.

As you know, I travel Greece, Egypt, Israel and Turkey a lot. Most of our stops are to tour the archaeological sites and ruins from older civilizations. What is interesting is that most of these archaeological sites were discovered in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. In many cases we knew the sites were there for centuries, we just didn’t uncover them until the last 200-ish years.

I asked our guide why this was, why archaeology was a relatively new discipline. After all, cities like Corinth, Philippi and Thessaloniki have been important to Christians for two thousand years, why didn’t we uncover them sooner? Our guide confirmed my theory. See, until recently man had to work to live. You may say, “we still do.” It’s not the same. People literally had to work just to survive. When was the last time you only ate food you grew, cultivated, killed and cooked? How much of your wardrobe did you sew together? When was the last time you built your tools or even your house? See my point? There was some trade, but it’s not like it is today. Today, as long as we have access to our bank accounts we can pick up and move ANYWHERE and start a new life because we can buy things like clothes, a house, tools and food. We still have to work to live. Only now, we don’t have to work for EVERYTHING- only money.

By the 19^th century people could travel to “ancient” lands and dig because they could use their money to buy what they needed. They didn’t have to work at creating every meal, a shelter, tools and clothing. Because of industrialization and the ability to buy anything and everything we now have free time and money to do other things.   

My mom has often made the statement that my grandparent’s generation has lived in probably the most revolutionary period in human technology. Being born right around 1920, they saw some of the largest leaps of change in human history. Let’s just focus on technology pertaining to travel.

• The Ford Model T was the first real affordable automobile to the masses. It was in production from 1908-1927. I remember hearing some of my grandparents talk about when cars started to really come into their towns.
• I was visiting with my last living grandfather 2 months ago. He lives in the same city he grew up in. One morning, we drove out to the old homestead and farm grounds he was raised on. He talked about how he used to go into town by having one of their animals pull their cart. 
  
  
• The Wright brothers had their first powered flights in 1903. My grandparents just barely missed the birth of aviation but they have surely seen its ramifications.
• The Wright brothers had 4 powered flights on their first day. The first three flights each covered a distance of 120, 175 and 200 feet. The fourth and final flight of the day was for 852 feet. By the way, the average wingspan of a Boeing 747 is 200 ft!
  

  

  I took this in the summer of 2007. This is where the Wright brothers had they first manned flights- Kill Devil Hills, NC.

  
  
• The first human spaceflight was in 1961.
  
  
• Just 8 years later on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.

I want to throw in a small video here. It’s actually a teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie Interstellar.  Christopher Nolan is the director of the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and The Prestige- 5 of my favorite movies. I’ve just listed 5 of the 8 movies he has directed. Interstellar will be his 9^th movie. Simply put, the guy only knows how to make amazing movies- both financially and critically!

Nolan likes to keep things close to the chest. So this teaser appears to only really have one scene from the movie. The entire trailer is composed of news clips documenting mankind’s pursuit of aviation and space exploration (the movie appears to be about a new era of space exploration). Combine that with Matthew McConaughey’s narration and it is simply inspirational. If you don’t want to watch the trailer at least read the written narration below the video; it's integral to the rest of the post.

“We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments…these moments when we dared to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown, known. We count these moments as our proudest achievement. But we lost all that. And perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers and we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us but our destiny lies above us.”

I love that video! Obviously you could make an a great spiritual application from the final line about “our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us but our destiny lies above us.” However, for the sake of finishing up this post and keeping with the theme or travel and exploration I want to redirect you to the line “And perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers and we’ve barely begun.”

We truly live in an unparalleled time! I traversed nearly the entire length of Greece by van in about 6 hours! Don’t forget to marvel at what we consider commonplace now!

I really hate flying. Not because I fear flying but because I have to sit on a transatlantic flight for about 9 hours at a time. It seems like forever! However, it’s a small sacrifice that affords me the ability to travel to far away lands in a fraction of the time!

Whenever I become fatigued with travel I just think, “The Apostle Paul would have LOVED to be able to travel so quickly to places all over the Earth!” I can make his month long journeys in just a few hours! In fact, you can get almost anywhere in the world within 2 days. Isn’t that amazing? And when Paul got to a new place, he had to support himself in some way. Now we can show up with a backpack and a credit card and do anything!

I’ve read Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years a couple of times. He has quite a few lines I’ve underlined in my Kindle edition. The following is a favorite of mine. To give you some context: much of this book is Miller talking about how he biked (that’s bicycle) across America. This is one of the epiphanies he had from that experience.

“When you fly across the country in an airplane the country seems vast, but it isn’t vast. It’s all connected by roads one can ride a bike down. If you watch the news and there’s a tragedy at a house in Kansas, that guy’s driveway connects with yours, and you’d be surprised how few roads it takes to get there.” Miller, Donald (2009-08-26). A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a BetterStory (p. 238). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Miller understands something I am realizing more and more each day: the world is not as vast and disconnected as you might want to think. Roads and airplanes bring us together and make it easier to see and explore new places. And that “perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers and we’ve barely begun.”

By the way, less than a month from now, I’m going to have to travel all the way back up to Northern Greece one day and then back home the next. However, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make! You see, this group of HUGers has decided to hike Mt. Olympus and I’m joining them for my first hike up the mountain home of the mythological Greek gods. I’m excited! It’s time to be a pioneer once more.

Do you remember at the beginning when I said my parents divided the country up to 5 sections to visit by car? I listed each trip we went on and said that I’ve been to every state, by car, east of the Rockies. Did you notice something off? The list ended with the number 4. We never made the West Coast trip. Katie went on to college and life just got in the way.

In college, my friends and I used to talk about how we planned to take a road trip to California after graduation. We talked about this for years! But, I left college early to live in Greece and now these friends have jobs, some are married and one even had a baby just a few weeks ago! Once again life got in the way. However, this December I’m hoping to go to California! And if not December then sometime within the next year. In a previous post, I mentioned that my dad and I like to take trips together when I’m home. For years I’ve lobbied for a trip to California but it’s just never come to fruition. This year I have a new/specific motivation. But that aside, I’m ready to explore new places. The opportunity and means to travel are there; I just have to keep reminding myself “we are still pioneers!”

Just some bonus pictures!
 

We couldn't lick the Liberty Bell (HIMYM refernce) but we did touch it!

Taken in 2010 from the roof of the Newseum with the grandfather I mentioned in the post.

One of our many trips to DC. Taken in 2000

3 Years Later...Here's What You Missed

I'm finally returning to my blog a few days shy of 3 years since my last post! I know in some of my last posts I made promises to write more often but I did exactly the opposite of that. I struggled with what to write. At first I wrote almost like an itinerary of what we had done here over the past few days. By the time I reached my third semester it was essentially the same thing over and over.

Now I'm doing something different. I've realized you (the audience) don't have to know EVERYTHING that happens EVERYDAY. This blog is going to be more conversational and just kind of what's going on in my life- whether that's traveling to Israel or hanging around and reading a book.

It's been 3 years since my last post! Chances are if you're reading this you've got an idea of what I've been up to during the past three years. Maybe you don't. Maybe you've forgotten. So, for those that care let me catch you up.

 

• This semester marks my 12th as the assistant to the director here at HUG. Don't forget my one semester as a student in the Summer of 2009! And the two weeks I was here in 2007 for HUHA. 
   
• 232 HUGers have come through the program since my last blog post and each has left an impact on my life. Add that to my first 3 semesters and that makes a grand total of 316 HUGers during my time here. Wow!
   
• I've been to Egypt 3 more times and got a Salmonella-like disease the last time.
   
   
  

  

  With Mike and Beth at the Giza pyramids during Spring 2013.

• I went to Turkey lead the group my first time there. Now I've been to Turkey 5 times, one of which was with my parents.
   
• I've been to Israel another 7 times and it never gets old, none of these do.  
   

• My parents have visited me 3 times in Greece. I've taken them to the Peloponnese, Northern Greece, a Greek Island Cruise and even to Amsterdam, Netherlands and Istanbul, Turkey (as already mentioned).
   
  

  

  Mom and I at the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens of Amsterdam. It was cold!

• A number of friends have come to visit me here in Greece and I hope more will do so before I'm done here. 
     
  

  

  Jessica, Jenna and I at Mycenae, Greece.

• I've been to countless Greek soccer games and even a Final Four Greek Basketball game that eventually lead to that team winning the European Basketball Championship a few weeks later!
      
• Shortly after I quit blogging, I went to Florence, Italy to visit Harding's program there (HUF). This was my first time to Florence and I even managed to visit Pisa one afternoon, all thanks to then-assistant to the director of HUF, Kyle.
     
  

  

  Goofing around with the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

• April of 2012 I discovered I have a love for comic books and have been reading ever since.
       
• In the Summer of 2012, Katie (my sister, only sibling) and I visited Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark on our way home to America.
      
  

  

  Katie and I on the external spiral stairs around a church's spire in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• A few days after arriving home from the previous trip, Dad, Chris (a good friend of mine) and I flew to St. Paul, MN for a 36-hour trip to see Coldplay in concert. This was their last American tour stop for 3 years. Hmmm...Seems to be a theme here.  
   
  

  

  Eating lunch at the Mall of America before the Coldplay concert in St. Paul.

  
  

• 2013 began with a quick trip to Miami, FL with my father to cheer on Alabama to their 15th National Championship over Notre Dame.
   
  

  

  Roll Tide from Miami, Florida in January of 2013! The game is over and the seats across the way are empty because
  the Notre Dame fans left.

  
  

• Some of my college roommates and I spent a weekend together at my family's cabin in Gatlinburg in the summer of 2013. By the way, we all had to rock mustaches for the entire weekend.
  
  

  

  You know I was going to include this picture! Don't worry, the fedora wasn't meant to be taken seriously either.

   
• During the Fall of 2013, I skipped a trip with HUG to Turkey and instead visited Harding's England campus in London (HUE) for a few days.
   
  

  

  Straddling the Prime Meridian with the HUE Director.

  
  

• 2013 came to a close with a visit to Disney World (and Universal Studios) to see one of my best friends, Caleb. This was my first time to Disney World (not counting a visit at 8 months of age) and it was....dare I say, magical!
    
  

  

  Hanging around EPCOT with Caleb

• After a successful LOST blog 4 years ago and by high demand- I built a website (www.mythsfortoday.com) where I review and analyze the movies, television, books and comic books I read/watch.
     
• In June 2014 my sister got married and I finally got a brother in my life. He's cool and I approve.
     
  

  

  Katie and Jonathan's first dance.

• Last but not least in this 3-year highlight reel, I got to sit in a Batmobile. 
     

One of the five Batmobiles used in the 1966 television show!

Plenty more has happened in the meantime. I've met many great new friends and lost touch with many great old friends. I've lost many important people in my life. Friends have gotten married and even had kids. Three of the four members of my immediate family (that's including me) have had surgeries during this time; some of us have had multiple surgeries. In the last three years I've learned simply that life goes on- good or bad, it doesn't stop. All we can do is try and live a good story.

I look back on the last 3 years and I can see that I'm very blessed. (I promise I'll refrain from using that word from now on. I agree, it's WAY over used! But what else can be said to accurately sum this up?)

So there, you're all caught up...mostly anyways. Hang with me and I'll keep you updated from this point on, promise!

P.S. Here are a few extra pictures from the adventures I listed!

Hogwarts Castle at Harry Potter World!

Mickey actually talks to you here!

Inside the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey with Mom and Dad.