I had gone to bed very early again today, well before sunset. I had walked around this small town and watched the ferries come in from Athos. I saw the monks come in with vehicles, zodiacs, wearing backpacks and hauling duffel bags in each hand. It will be interesting to see them in their environment on the Peninsula. Many of these men are to be well educated with PhD’s or were millionaires at one time but came to Athos with a shift in life. I am blessed and grateful to my Father for showing me the light before I had dived that far into the depths of worldly knowledge or worldly gain before realizing that all such pursuits are in vain.
Although I have read, we shall see if it is true that in their retreat from the world, they are now letting it back in, in the form of that which I have renounced. I am speaking of computers, the Internet and the relying on combustion engines instead of the labor of their own hands.
I say all of this before my visit so as to show that it is a mistake to assume or place opinions upon things unless seen with and experienced with you own eyes. I have wanted to see this place since my Grandfather gave me the article to read, sitting in the doctor’s office for my Grandmother’s appointment. Yet thinking on it since my conversations in Thera with Ryan, I have had nothing but opposition to the following of their dogma of their incorporation of technology into their way of life.