Take it how you want it
Take it how you want it
It's yours for the taking in Santorini
Polaroids of girls behind a necklace with an Instagram heart emoticon and a crucifix. Provocative. Ominous. Docuseries. A woman named Jennifer does something illegal. True crime. Intimate. Emotional. A man gushes blood under LEDs surrounded by four men and a woman in leather. Action. Dark. Witty. Simone Biles Rising, Coming Wednesday. Rory Gilmore smiles next to her new father. Rachel Green with whatever haircut, front and center. Charming. Feel-Good. Sitcom. Relaxing. Action. Dark. Tasteful. Intimate. Emotional. Ensemble. Who knew the Netflix sleep screen had so much to teach you about the human psyche?
There is something profoundly unnatural about the capability of humans to move so fast – a fact that is only realized in the absence of a window. Like on a motorbike, in the screaming wind, passing figures under the lamplight at 60 mph. You don’t realize what you signed up for until you hit a few bumps that strike you with a new kind of fear, a carnal nervousness. Your protection is summarized by you and your helmet alone – seatbelts, airbags, and windshields seem suddenly like high luxuries. A myriad of images flash through your mind of those morbid possibilities you’ve seen on screens from the comfort of your home.
There is a unique closeness of the stars in Santorini, where the threshold between heaven and earth is paper thin. The hillside mirrors the night sky and you live and breathe on that liminal horizon, where the miraculousness and terrifying fragility of life are two sides of the same coin. Death doesn’t feel all too near, but just near enough to make itself known, waving from a distance to validate the living. You think of your mom, dad, and siblings and you wonder, and you wonder.
But you don’t wonder for very long; your attention is all that you have. You’re already going, and when you’re already going there isn’t time to stop and think. 8 more minutes, is all you can imagine, and then 5, and then 2. Eyes on the road, arms engaged, leaning forward, leaning in. Your only choice is to continue. In a beautiful and uncanny way you are forced to believe in yourself. You have no option, and so you feel just as grateful as you do alive. True freedom is found in its antithesis. With courage embodied, determination takes on a new meaning. Your eyes are up now and the possibilities are yours, no longer abstracted beyond the waters of the firmament.
Santorini, Greece: a childhood dream. A crescent moon in the Aegean Sea. Volcanic devastation. Cosmic wonder. Cubiform whitewash and blue chapel. A victim of post-pandemic overtourism. An ancient relic overturned and renamed. Where you can buy your own personal firmament.
Tasteful. Charming. Emotional. Intimate. Action. Dark. Relaxing. Feel-Good. It’s yours for the taking — take it how you want it.
