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 By Megan Bladow '07
As I walked into the Church of the Annunciation as a tourist, I thought that maybe I would look at it with a deeper perspective than the average tourist.
After reading Dubisch and learning all about the church, the icon and the pilgrimages, I was looking forward to seeing the place. I always get this sense of thrill when I can experience for myself something I have read about. It was interesting to compare reality to what I had come up with in my mind.
The icon looked nothing like I thought it would, being completely covered in jewels. And the church had so many more tamata than I was expecting.
When I started giving a closer look to them, some caught my eye more than others.
The one that was most interesting for me was the one with a pipe wrench hanging from it. I could not figure out just what the significance of it was at the time. When I was going through my pictures a few days later, I saw it and started to think again about what it could symbolize for whoever left it.
As tamata can be left both for prayers granted and those waiting to be fulfilled, my first thought was to wonder which this one was for. My second thought was about who would have left it. What was the prayer associated with this tama? I still cannot figure out what the significance is of the wrench.
So I have given up on ever being able to know. But now I wonder, would a native Greek know the significance? Or would they have as much idea as me? Does being an outsider in this situation make me less aware or are natives as clueless as me? These questions have actually run through my mind this entire trip.
I have often wondered if I look at everything, every ancient site and every daily thing, with such a different frame of mind that every thought I have of Greece is completely different than the natives. This trip has made me think deeply about my ideas of history, preservation, as well as modern questions of how a person's view of life is shaped.
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