Body and Soul

This trip has been good for my soul.  When I walked along the beach both in Athens when we traveled to the coast for the afternoon and when we first arrived in Rhodes I felt calm and my mind was clear.  I sit here writing this blog in my room with only the natural light of the day and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore to accompany me.  Usually I have to listen to some sort of instrumental music to drown out the other sounds around me but right now I am content with the sound of the water outside.

Today in class Finitsis spoke about 4 Maccabees and the thesis of the book is “…that reason is the absolute master of the passions.”  Maccabees goes on to say that reason must rule over emotions such as pleasure and pain which are part of both body and soul.  I enjoyed this discussion of the body and soul and his ideas about how the body is the physical part of a human but the soul is the section that goes with you after death.  As your body is then decayed and no longer the vessel that contains you.  Your soul is the connection that you have to God and it will go to Heaven with you even after your body is no longer in existence. 

Yesterday we talked about Natural Theology and that this is the belief where you think that God has to exist because there is so much regularity in the natural world that there has to be some sort of higher power.  I can see how someone could be persuaded by this point of view because I have seen so many things this trip that would have ensured a belief in God if I didn’t already believe in it.  We have seen so many different spectacles of nature such as the beautiful blue ocean water, the towering snow-covered mountains, and the sun peeking through the trees as we walk around even on a slightly overcast day.  This is a gorgeous country that we are getting small glimpses of as we travel around on our day trips and even walk through the old cities and palaces. 

Some of these adventures have been tough on our bodies as almost every day we walk for miles and there is just so much that we want to see so sometimes we have to sacrifice our down time to go experience something new.  I know that for me our time in Rhodes has been a bit more relaxing just because it is a much smaller city and so everything is a bit closer than in Athens.  But I also like to keep busy and that is something that I need to feel fulfilled in my day-to-day life so I have had to keep a balance between all of the fun and exciting things that I want to do and the things that my physical body needs to function. 

Even when I’m at PLU I often get caught up in adventures that definitely help my soul but hurt my body in ways like sleep deprivation and unhealthy eating habits but I am still in college so a little bit of that is allowed. J  I am loving my time here in Greece and just as Andrew and Markelle and I were discussing this morning, it will be a very sad next week when we all have to board a plane home.  It will be strange to not see these wonderful people every day as we have done here in Greece and my group of people that I know and hang out with at PLU will have evolved.  I also think we will all have a bit of culture shock when we head back stateside and don’t greet everyone on the streets anymore or travel around in large groups asking kind strangers where the best places to eat are. 

My body and soul have both changed while I have been abroad and are still apt to change before I leave but it is definitely for the better.  This trip has already transformed the way I think about my relationships with people and what I can accomplish as a person.