There is great life here on Paros for those who wish to live it. Being away from America is a blessing and a joy, with the exception of being so distant from family and all that this means. Granted we are all adults and have our own lives, but we do speak and write, two things I need to do more often with my family. I am eating breakfast, nothing special on the menu but it is fresh and much better than American bacon and eggs. The yolks are deep, bright orange and the bacon, although processed, is lean and contains just the right amount of fat to crisp up nicely and add salt to the eggs. My coffee has been prepared in the classic fashion, a gift from the Turks and served this way from Bosnia throughout the Middle-East. A small pot of cold water is put on the stove. In it I spoon two tablespoons of coffee grounds and let it come to a boil. I then let it settle, the grounds sinking to the bottom and clarifying the rich brew. In America this is called ‘cowboy coffee’. Little did those cowpokes know that the Byzantine Empire was drinking it this way a thousand years before they loped across the dusty trail.
The Aegean Center is moving along and I am working today, finally, in the studio with the first of many shoots for a friend. This is a promotional package for her singing career. Tomorrow I am back in the studio for some male nude studies. This is a good change for me since the female nude is so prominent in photographic history. The male nude will always carry with it an element of homo-eroticism, a subject which can illicit nervous coughs and the shuffling of suddenly uncomfortable feet.
I have been meeting more of the locals lately and have heard of a house for rent on AndiParos, just across the straits. It is a winter rental and very cheap, but alas, I will not be here this season. Perhaps I can find out if it will be available next September. It sounds ideal, if a little isolated. Closer to Paroikia would be better for me, both in mind and body but the idea of having an artist’s retreat near the shore for the off-season is very appealing and the price is so low…I’ll find more facts and make decisions based on reason and the ability to keep up my end of the bargain. That is the best course. It is, after all, what Marcus Aurelius would have done.
The rain has moved through the night, drenching this little island in the Aegean. The streets have been cleared of muck and debris, washed to the sea through the ancient gutters that wind their way through the flagstone streets. The next few days are supposed to bring us more of the same, but that is alright. As seasons shift here they bring with them the promise of change, inevitable and unstoppable. What would life be without this constant?
JDCM
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