Short Trip To The Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven--a Pilgrimage

Short Trip to the Edge Where Earth Meets Heaven—A Pilgrimage aaa Scott Cairns For Jackson Browne, whose songs during the seventies made me want to become a poet. For Annie Dillard, my teacher, whose prose during the seventies showed me how to be one. For Richard Howard, my friend, whose loving attention to the word I now recognize as true veneration. With gratitude to the University of Missouri Research Council, whose research leave afforded me time to travel and to write. With love to Marcia, Elizabeth, and Benjamin, whose patience and sacrifice allowed me to commence a long-desired journey. S e t t i ng O u t In time, even the slowest pilgrim might articulate a turn. Given time enough, the slowest pilgrim—even he—might register some small measure of belated progress. The road was, more or less, less compelling than the hut, but as the benefit of time allowed the hut’s distractions to attain a vaguely musty scent, and all the novel knickknacks to acquire a fine veneer of bonewhite dust, the road became then somewhat more attractive; and as the weather made a timely if quite brief concession, the pilgrim took this all to be an open invitation to set out. Contents PART ONE: The Far 1 1 The boat is the Axion Estin, and I am finally… 3 2 Before this, my only experiences with the Holy Mountain had… 19 3 Along the way to Philotheou, the trail skirted a small… 39 4 Our small room at Philotheou—holding but two narrow beds and… 52 5 Our second Divine Liturgy at Philotheou continues to haunt me. 64 6 Father Damianos is, I’m guessing, a man in his late… 80 7 Alone again, I grinned to discover that much of the… 95 8 Along the way to Saint Paul’s, the trail cut into… 106 PART TWO: The Far and the Near 121 9 I was glad to get home, glad to be back… 123 10 Father Damianos was washing cups in the archondariki kitchen when… 143 11 The hike took me, for the most part, along winding… 161 12 Father Matthew caught up with me after trapeza to say… 176 13 I had pretty much decided as early as September that,… 195 PART THREE: The Near 211 14 My son, Ben, agreed to join me on my third… 213 15 Ben was quiet for most of the hour it took… 231 16 The journey to prayer, so far as I can tell,… 254 A Pilgrim’s Glossary 259 About the Author