Recently a friend* asked me “What makes you happy?” At first I was stymied and my mind drew a blank. Then a myriad of images flooded my mind. Once I had sorted through the images of friends, family, beloved pets, sunlight on water and dewdrops on roses, by far the largest category left were memories of happiness found on archaeological sites
What is it about ancient sites and even not so ancient ones that elicit so much pleasure? They are often intrinsically beautiful, often dramatically situated. Sometimes it is the very age that beguiles. One wanders through their spaces and feels surrounded by the people who have been there before, the original builders and inhabitants as well as the archaeologists who reclaimed them.
One of my favourite happy-inducing sites is the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi in Greece pictured above. I have had the pleasure of travelling there first as a teenager with my mother. I have been there alone and with groups. I have been there in blistering sun and blustering rain. I have been there when the fog rolled in and one had no trouble imagining the god speaking to his priestess. One glorious afternoon I sat on the steps of the god's temple and watched nesting falcons feeding their young on the cliffs towering above. At all such times the academic facts and figures slip away leaving one in a place where past and present meld.
Notes
*My friend is Victoria Ollers, the Associate Publisher of the new magazine in development What Makes You Happy. The first issue will be released before Valentine’s Day 2012. Check out .the information at http://happyhappyhappy.ca
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