My Greek Ancestors
Published in: Odyssey Magazine
On: May/June 2007
“I am the only Greek in my family.The fishing net draped across the front entry adds a definitive new leitmotif to my San Francisco Edwardian home. The building has a blue-tinged white luster much like the structures that cling to the angular precipices of Greece’s southern Peloponnese area of Lakonia. According to Greek lore, the fishing net, having survived the washings of forty different currents, is so pure and clear it will bless my home and guard against evil. You see, I’ve just returned from Greece and have discovered my true Greek ancestry.
The charm again the Mati, the Evil Eye, now dangles on my rearview mirror as I speed along California’s highways. The Greeks believe this talisman protects a person from another person’s bad vibe or harmful thoughts. I have obliged each of my daughters to wear the deep blue “evil-eye” charm and have secretly pinned one inside my son’s drumstick bag as well. He attends music school in New York City soon, and goodness knows, he’ll need it there. ”
