Dear family and friends,
Amy and I have returned from ten days in Greece, as we continue to believe that traveling is better than shrinking and as we face the ROOT problem — ran out of time. Amy caught a rainbow over the Acropolis in a nice shot. Though battered of late as a center of Euro-centrism, Greek culture is not bad for one place for our civilization to have gotten a start.
I will send separately a statue at Delphi in which a youth, representing rationality, appears to be losing a struggle with a half man, half horse centaur, representing irrational bestiality. The story ends with the rational human being winning. That is the hope, and it seems to me in part, the reality of Western Civilization.
The Greek city-states all sent their best art to Delphi — a long 100 miles west and north of Athens. Why? Because the oracle provided those who came there with good advice. From a young woman fallen into a trance from inhaling vapors? Actually not. What she said or murmured was interpreted by some learned and worldly-wise priests who kept a voluminous library.
So if I went to Delphi to find out whether I should start a business to sell figs on the northern coast of the Black Sea, the priests will tell me about the risks and opportunities — local customs, existing competition, best time to sail there and back, etc. Religion plus McKinsey. The library was composed in part of records left by hard-headed merchant traders, not given to mysticism.
Grant
