Oct 15, 2026

Part 2: “REFLECTING LIGHT INTO DARK PLACES”

To make a lovely story short, Papaderos succeeded. The institute became a reality—a conference ground on the site of horror - & it was in fact a source of productive interaction between the two countries. Books have been written on the dreams that were realized by what people gave to people in this place.

“By the time I came to the institute for a summer session, Alexander Papaderos had become a living legend. One look at him and you saw his strength and intensity, energy, physical power, courage, intelligence, passion and vivacity radiated from his person. And to speak to him, to shake his hand, to be in a room with him when he spoke, was to experience his extraordinary electric humanity. Few men live up to their reputation when you get close. Alexander Papaderos was an exception.

At the last session on the last morning of a two-week seminar on Greek culture, led by intellectuals & experts in their fields who were recruited by Papaderos from across Greece, Papaderos rose from his chair at the back of the room & walked to the front, where he stood in the bright Greek sunlight of an open window & looked out. We followed his gaze across the bay to the iron cross marking the German cemetery. He turned, & made the ritual gesture: ‘Are there any questions?’ Quiet quilted the room. These two weeks had generated enough questions for a lifetime, but for now there was only silence. ‘No questions?’  Papaderos swept the room with his eyes. So, I asked: ‘Dr Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?’ The usual laughter followed, and the people stirred to go. Papaderos held up his hand & stilled the room & looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious & seeing from my eyes that I was, he said: ‘I will answer your question.’

Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished  into a leather billfold & brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter. And what he said went like this: ‘When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor & we lived in a remote village. One day on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. I tried to find all the pieces & put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. (holding it up) And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy & became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine, in deep holes & crevices & dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. I kept that little mirror, & as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments & continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game but rather a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But light - truth, understanding, & knowledge, are there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.

I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design & shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have, I can reflect light into the dark places of this world, into the black places in the hearts of men & change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.’ And then he took the small mirror &, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window & reflected them onto my face & onto my hands folded on the desk. Much of what I experienced in the way of information about Greek culture & history that summer is gone from my memory. But in the wallet of my mind, I carry a small round mirror still.

Are there any questions?

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Spiritual Consultant with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy