Onboard the Pride of the Dodecanese

Well, I  could hardly be happier, on board a catamaran, zipping across the Aegean towards Patmos. We're running a bit late but who cares.

I'm glad I added this little diversion before heading for Rhodes - it's been great already and can only get better shortly. Spoke to my darling Nadia earlier for about half an hour - She'll be on her plane flying this way in less than three days - yay!!

Almost there. I've been having a lovely time listening to a variety of songs, which have certainly put me in the right frame of mind for my imminent pilgrimage. Chris de Burgh's song "The Risen Lord" captures something of what I was trying to write last night. There is some ancient, deep, inexpressible spiritual connection that can be made to the heart of the resurrection but few people get past the debates abot its literal truth or otherwise and so miss out. Paul did Christians a great disservice by insisting that Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection - but I wonder if he meant a literal resurrection. Probably not and anyway, in his theology "resurrection" and "ascension", "glorification" or "vindication" meant the same thing.  Other songs - "Crusader" - there is something about the Crusades that does touch me deeply - I am susceptible to its call and can't judge those men who chose to wear the cross all those centuries ago. It appeals because it would be so much easier if the world were black and white, like in any fairytale, like in Lord of the Rings, like in much of the Bible, e.g. that book penned on the island I'm about to land on. My reality is anything but - there doesn't seem to be any movement or cause that isn't somehow compromised or corrupted or simply not what I really believe in. "I'd join the movement, if there was one I could believe in, I'd break bread and wine, if there were a church I could receive in" - Bono's words but my feelings for the past 15 years at least.

The song that touched me most deeply was "In a Country Churchyard" - a simple wedding day in the distant past then years, decades, centuries later, a visitor to the overgrown churchyard is reminded of what lasts - it is love, only love. That is what I want to say to my darling Nadia, the love of my heart and my soul. It is our love that will last and that is the whole purpose of our existence - to love and cherish each other every day for the rest of our lives, until that day comes for us when we are ready to fly...