I really did not know that there was a word for it. I am always hungry for it, longing for it, searching for it, missing it way too many times, and over the moon every time I encounter or am part of it. In Shakespeare’s play Richard III the king cries out, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” My cry would be, “Deipnosophy! Deipnosophy! My kingdom for deipnosophy!” Deipnosophy means the love of, or skill of, dinner-table conversation (from the Greek deipnos – dinner). It is truly like wearing a pair of shoes two sizes too small when you’re at a social gathering where conversation consists of boasting (telling of recent holidays, best airlines, worst stop-overs, bad service at well-known restaurants, the fuel consumption of their new SUV, the trials and tribulations at the last Comrades marathon she ran and names dropping. Among other things), rugby talk, dirty jokes and innuendos and topics solely picked from facebook pages and whatsapp messages on ...
The Restory is a Retreat Centre nestled against Tafelkop, a singular mountain head near Wakkerstroom, South Africa. Here we live a simple life as contemplatives. It is a place of re-connection: with ourselves, people, Nature, Silence and Creativity. Our retreats are aimed at this. Our conversations, writing and art centre around the univocity of life. We need a place that reminds us that we are all one. The Restory hopes to be such a place and space.