Chapter 6 idle first

After leaving Mycenae, I should have gone directly to Olympia, but the journey was too far and I needed to stay in Nafria halfway.This is a small seaside town that was once used as the capital after Greece got rid of Turkish rule in the nineteenth century.Our driver, Socrates, was not very familiar with the roads of this small town, so he drove the car to the beach to ask for directions. Everyone asked to get off the car in unison, because the scene in front of them was too tempting. There were no waves in the sea at this time, and the shore was full of people fishing and sitting around. In the water a few hundred meters offshore, there was an island with an ancient castle with gray and white stone walls, which was shining golden in the setting sun.Because of it, looking back at the setting sun, I found that there is an ancient castle on each of the two mountains to the west, which is more beautiful than this one.Quickly climb the mountain to see, one of them is called Palemie, which is very large, with forts, watchtowers, palaces, and prisons built high and low inside. This was built by the Turkish rulers, and it is now empty.People left it and were indifferent to it, only leisurely by the water.

But at the beginning, an ancient civilization like Greece was ruled by Turkey for a long time, and people with a little memory of civilization must be very painful.This feeling is stronger than the general pain of subjugation, because civilization has already become an ecological habit, but it has to be completely dismantled and completely replaced with an inferior method.The ruler also knows that he is inferior, so based on his inferiority complex, he crazily sweeps away all the delicate parts, unwilling to keep a little bit.They are especially afraid that that little bit will spread and cannot be dealt with.Therefore, many ancient civilizations are often more desolate than other places after being enslaved.

In this case, it becomes very difficult to preserve a little civilization, only to preserve pain.Because only pain can delay the process of decline, and even plant the hope of revival after the decline. Compared with ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Two Rivers, and India, Greece has the advantage of maintaining suffering for a longer period of time after being enslaved.Unlike some civilizations, after being enslaved, the period of suffering is ended too early, and even if there is a chance to recover, it does not know where to return.In the final analysis, this should also be attributed to Greek civilization itself.Greek tragedy trained people to a sublime sense of suffering, and its rational spirit made these sufferings simple and clear.In contrast, other civilizations tend to be more concrete if painful, and less powerful if intense.

On the seashore of Nafria, I once again experienced the simplicity and clarity of Greece.Although these castles brought pain to the ancestors, now that they are no longer hideous, let them become landscapes, neither demolished nor repaired, neither praised nor demoted, nor shocked nor surprised, nor use them to tell much about history and vicissitudes.The matter has passed, and everyone is only fishing, sitting and watching the sea at the beach.The pain of cleanliness will definitely settle, and settle down into leisure.Leisure is the compensation for pain, and pain is the cushion of leisure.

Greece is not rich, and many places are in disrepair, crowded and simple, but there are few eager selling and soliciting.They take material pursuits and precautions against others very lightly, and there is a kind of self-respect buried in idleness that does not need to compare with others. The most important thing in the world is an independent individual, which is the legacy of their ancestors 2,500 years ago.So they reduce a lot of unnecessary interpersonal pain and personal struggle pain, and make the aforementioned pain of the decline of civilization cleaner and less dusty. I used to travel all over Italy, and I always marveled at the idleness of the Italians, but Mr. Yang Guangsheng, the Chinese ambassador to Greece, told me: In terms of idleness, Italy can only rank third in Europe.The first is Greece, the second is Spain.When I was in Italy, I often encountered this kind of situation: several foreigners waited in line at the window of an agency, but the gentleman who was doing the work at the window walked slowly across two streets to drink coffee, and no one around him raised any objections.In Greece, the wait for every meal is so long that you have to go to fast food, but the fast food also waits for more than an hour.The Greek thought: What's the rush?After eating, don't you also sit and chat?

They believe in the fable that everyone is familiar with: a man is fishing on the seashore where there are shoals of fish, he catches two and then returns home. A foreign tourist asks why he doesn’t catch more, and he asks why he catches more.Foreign tourists say that fishing more can sell money, and then buy boats, houses, open shops, and invest Then what?he asks. Then you can leisurely bask in the sun and go fishing by the sea.Foreign tourists said. This I have done now.He said. Since they returned to the same place after walking a big circle, the Greeks stopped working hard. Of course, this way of life also contains many disadvantages.A large part of idleness leads to fatigue, laziness and numbness, which can easily cause mental anemia and weightlessness, and is left behind by modern civilization.

Idleness is the result of health, but too much idleness is detrimental to health.Only Greece must not lose its health, because it is the hometown of the Olympics. October 1, 1999, Peloponnese Peninsula, Greece, stayed overnight at the King-Minos Hotel in Nafria