I have not yet made this trip but when I do, it will involve two big ideas as templates; 1. visiting all the places it is said Apostle Paul visited after the Ascension and, 2. tracing all the places where the major battles of the Peloponnesian War took place as recounted in The History of the Peloponnesian War by the Athenian General - Thucydides. This kind of trip will involve a lot of Island hopping by ferry - something I have already done - but I will also need a vehicle so as to drive from point A to B at my leisure.
To psyche myself for my expeditions, I normally like to quote military passages as they tend to focus on the essence of the matter. But not this time around, this time around my inspiration for the trip will come not from Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War - the greatest book of all time - instead, it will come from Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 13, he said:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” - Apostle Paul, Epistle To The Corinthians.
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| Island hopping by Ferry in Greece (2012) |
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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| Piraeus Port, Athens (2012) |
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| Boarding The Flying Dolphin at Piraeus, Athens for my first Greek Anabasis (2012) |
