Paul preaching in the streets of Ephesus – by Eustache le Sueur.
Continuing on, for our last week following in the footsteps of St Paul, our group based in Kusadası, certainly one of the busiest tourist centers in all of Turkey. Package tourism is the order of the day. Leviathans of the cruise ship industry lumber into port daily. Thousands are dumped onto the local scene for a wander about the town or a quick shore excursion. Development has swamped Kusadası for better and/or worse. Our visits in search of St Paul here centered on trips to Ephesus and the ancient Greek cities of Priene, Miletus and the Temple of Apollo at Didyma.
The theater at Saglassos with the city beyond high in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey
DISCOVERING PAUL
Following in the footsteps of St Paul brought us to Turkey. Christianity did not begin with Paul of Tarsus. But the movement got a huge jump start from his evangelizing journeys and the letters he wrote to various communities he had helped start. Paul figures in more of the New Testament than almost Jesus, himself. It was through Paul’s efforts the Way was expanded beyond the Jewish world, the original target for both John the Baptist and Jesus. Paul allowed non-Jews – Gentiles – to join the party without fully following Jewish law – the crucible being circumcision. By opening this door, the Way evolved into an entirely new religion. Actually, a new family of religions developed, far different from the original stream Jesus or even Paul had drifted along.
If the war had come just a little later, Ernest Psichari might have avoided his fate at Rossignol entirely by already not being a part of this world but cloistered as a monk in the next. Psichari was one of the up-and-coming French writers who fell early in the war.
Note – this is an article I wrote for the Oregon LIONS monthly magazine back a couple years ago. It seems like a nice place to launch this blog from.Helen Keller truly smiles.
“HISTORY – an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.”
Ambrose Bierce from The Devil’s Dictionary
“To remain ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain a child. For what is the worth of a human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
Cicero from Orator
“What’s past is the Prologue”
William Shakespeare
Welcome to my blog
Lake Bled with Bled Castle across the Lake – same picture as on the first Lonely Planet volume on Slovenia
Blogs tend to focus on specific subjects. My focus tends to encompass my own learning as I make my way about in the World. Living in Portland, Oregon, there tends to be a quite a few stories regarding the Pacific Northwest. Show what you know?
My years have allowed me to visit many places around the world. Travel can push you to learning a lot about that world. The ‘learning’ doesn’t end with the travel. One story leads to another and so it is here on this site. There is a wide array of topics already covered. Easiest way to navigate through the topics is to use the sitemap here. I hope you find some of the entries as entertaining as I did in writing (and maybe visiting). Good journeys.
quick note:
A recent trip took me to Egypt with the pyramids and a Nile cruise in upper Egypt serving as the main agenda items. Those and other items on the menu will be inserted into the blog scheme in the foreseeable future. Enjoy reading about them as much as I did on the ground.
