And then….
The wheel has come full circle, or something like that. 1990 evidently was a very important year for our family. So was 2024.
Right after Chris and I flew back from Greece, we returned to Duke for our daughter’s graduation.
Our son got married in New Orleans. The bride wore a wedding veil from Crete.
I’ve now seen Kavousi in May, June, July, August, and October. I’ve seen the Kastro dry and dusty, covered with wildflowers, and just starting to brown up for winter. I’ve seen it crawling with humans and utterly deserted. I’m delighted that Chris wanted to return after his first visit.
And though neither Chris or I can claim to be an archaeologist of any description, our return to Kavousi was the ideal finish for a sabbatical project intended to feel the texture of the landscape in real time. Though much changes, much abides. Crete remains sunbaked, rocky, and steep. We can still walk to the Kastro on a trail made by Turks to improve a footpath walked by Minoans, enhanced with dirt roads made by 20th-century Cretans. To get a sense of what it means to be a human in the physical world, we could do a lot worse than that.