The Good Life

I want to first start out with a question. What is the good life? How do you define something that can mean many things to many different people? Dictionary.com defines Good Life as 1. A life abounding in material comforts and luxuries or 2. A life lived according to the moral and religious laws of one’s culture. Now while I agree that material luxuries and moral correctness do tend to lead to a good and happy life, the definition seems lacking to me. There are elements that I find are missing in dictionary.com’s definition that I know are essential to my definition of “the good life.”

I would say that I have been living “the good life” for the past several weeks here in Greece. I have lost weight, I have gained muscle, I have eaten some amazing food, I’ve had several firsts, I am currently staying in a 5 star hotel, I have made some amazing friends, I have been to several temples and churches of various gods, I swam in the Aegean, and I have traveled all over Greece visiting places like Corfu, Delphi, Sparta, Mistras, Rhodes, and Symi. And it’s only been 16 days since I started. If that isn’t the definition of the good life I do not know what is because there is literally nothing that I can think of that would improve this trip. AND I still have another week in Greece plus another 4 days in Italy.

I know that everyone has their own definition of what the “good life” is and how to achieve it. I know I had mine. It consisted of a good book, good music, rain pounding on the window, sunny days and the beach, video games, sunsets, good friends, Rule 32 of Zombieland: Enjoy the little things, and the occasional Starbucks mocha. That definition is still a valid one but it has changed since I have been in Greece. It now includes exploring a city, finding the local flea market, and making new friends plus a hundred other things that I could name but I don’t want to go on listing things. I think my time in Greece has really opened my eyes to the world and how much different it is from my little bubble of PLU and E-Town Washington and I love it.

I had a moment today when we hiked up to the Acropolis of Rhodes and sat on the edge of a hill to watch the sunset where I found two rocks that were secluded but not very far away from the group yet still right at the edge of the hill that I reclined on and watched the sun sink below the horizon thinking to myself “how can this get any better” and my response to myself was “this is perfect. I wouldn’t change anything about this moment in time.” This is what I think of as an instance of my “good life”: watching the sunset on a cliff on an island in the Mediterranean.

-Austain