Dimitris Pikionis & Education

Children listen to secret, inner voices. They learn all the time, every minute and hour of the day, and always at the right time, as only children can learn when they are on their own. I sensed that each person requires a special upbringing, a special method of education adapted to their own particular inclinations, if they are to flourish. And yet we are compelled to march across the wide desert of a conventional education, which deadens souls without number. From an early age, I felt the need for a teacher who could read my thoughts and feelings and guide me on my way. Apart from my actual tutors, nature and friendship among my peers have also proved invaluable teachers to me.

Looking back on what I have written here about my life, I contemplate and I, like the poet Cavafy, read 'the inscription on this ancient stone', with its 'badly mutilated' letters, desires and hopes, joy and grief, and I am filled with wonder and admiration at how many tears, then 'tears again', men 'of mortal body and immortal soul' are destined to shed before they can achieve spiritual fulfillment. These 'foul, unceasing' sufferings gradually fashion his spiritual being, in time permeating his works with a mysticism like the 'morning breeze'...

Young people, discard individual will and descend into the trough of obedience. This, and this alone, will grant you true freedom. Do not slacken or lie idle, for it is written that we may eventually be forgiven for not having been able to accomplish something, but never forgiven for not having tried.