Life Worth Living Life Retreat in Greece

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better!

Samuel Beckett

The two weekend retreats held in Greece (February 3-4 and April 27-28, 2024) despite all the inevitable limitations (some of which self-imposed) demonstrated that reflection contributes to self-improvement, especially when certain conditions are met. These conditions include adopting a meaningful system of values (like the concepts of expectation, fear, contribution, responsibility, failure and suffering which we explored) while still adhering to the Pythagorean command of self-assessment; “What did I do wrong? What did I do right? What should I have done and did not do?” In self-assessment, especially when applied rigorously, failure almost always creeps in. But what does failure mean?

Human beings navigate between two opposing forces – life and death. With death, the individual returns to the general, the species. Life, on the other hand, focusses on the individual within the general; from an invisible generality life becomes specific (Plato, Phaedo). This life, this specific life, which we all have, is constantly forced to face death, while ever-watchful failure lies in wait.

Without failure, the moral and spiritual stature of a person is not tested. Failure becomes the motivation for another step up, the incentive for creation. It is a process of self-improvement. Managing failure is a personal, internal struggle, but it also engages with the external world, society and nature. This interaction between the internal and external worlds prompts the question of the meaning of life. Our response to this question determines our attitude to all aspects of life and our management of failure.

We journey through life torn between who we are and who we wish or strive to be. We wrestle with our internal dreams and harsh external reality. We often blame the external world for our failure and come to hate it, or we blame our inner selves and come to hate ourselves. We are in a constant state of "self-becoming," trying to reconcile these two extremes, to balance between them and become our best selves. Odysseus Elytis comforts and encourages us with: "We have much beautiful work still before us as we strive to capture Greatness" (The Tree of Light and the Fourteenth Beauty, Ikaros, Athens 1979, p. 63).

Having no failures to show means we have not undergone any struggles, made no efforts, had no persistent quests and are without “much beautiful work.”

Nikos Navridis chose Elefsina to set up his work with Beckett's words (Aeschylia, 2013). Elefsina has always harbored within it the threat of failure as humanity struggles to transcend its fate. But Becket's words, mingled with the promised healing of light and grain, tender, comforting and therapeutic can be felt in this place.

Dr. Georgia Kakourou-Chroni