Category: Turkey

DIARIES & MEMOIRS: COUNTRIES A-Z, Featured blogs, sites & lit works, Reflections, Turkey

Deaths and births

!Epic Tomorrows

The piece below was originally published on the blogsite, thingsfromsomewhere; republished with permission.

I get very excited when I become someone else. Those are the moments when I feel most alive. When I do something I never expected myself to do, when I find myself in a state I could never have imagined myself in before.

No, I am not talking about our age’s experience sickness. I do not mean the hunting (or should I have said gathering?) of new activities, new places, and new people that are paid for. I am talking about dying and being born. A part of the old me dies, and a new me is born. Life is countless deaths and births. We cannot be born without dying, and we cannot live without dying and being born again.

These are not such great moments of transformation. Everything happens in an instant, with a small spark, in the midst of everyday life. In a word that slips out of your mouth, at a corner you turn while walking, as you sip your coffee, or even while gazing into the distance. A small fire ignites inside you, and you become enlightened. You realize that the uneasiness within you was the agony of that slow death and the birth that was on its way.

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This is the 100th post on Centre of the Web!

DIARIES & MEMOIRS: COUNTRIES A-Z, Featured blogs, sites & lit works, Turkey

Worlds are colliding

!Epic Tomorrows

The piece below was originally published on the blogsite, thingsfromsomewhere; republished with permission.

This morning, while having breakfast on the balcony, I heard the sound of someone reciting the Qur’an. I looked and saw that the garbage collector rummaging through the dumpster across the street was playing it on his phone. He was collecting garbage accompanied by a sacred voice. He was illuminated by the holy light of the heavens in the midst of the filth of the world.

He had a beard resembling that of ISIS militants. While I sipped my tea among the flowers on my balcony, he wiped his face with a pair of sweatpants that had come out of the trash and hurried quickly to the next garbage container.

At that moment, an older woman came out onto the balcony opposite and looked toward where the sound was coming from. After watching the man who made misery bearable through a passionate (but reactionary) faith for a while, she called out to me: “Look what we’ve come to because of these ignorant people. Just look at his beard. I swear, I shudder when I see him.”

Featured blogs, sites & lit works, Turkey

The Sway

!Epic Tomorrows

The piece below was originally published on the blogsite, thingsfromsomewhere; republished with permission.

A major earthquake had recently killed thousands of people. In the aftermath of the earthquake, a mobilization began across the country to take the necessary measures to prevent such a devastating disaster from happening again. Meeting after meeting was held. At one of these meetings, officials from various institutions in a city somewhere in the country had gathered to discuss what needed to be done to prepare for earthquakes.

The chairman of the meeting said:

“First of all, we need to raise awareness. Earthquake awareness comes first. We need to educate our schoolchildren and teach them how to behave during an earthquake.”

Voices rose from the crowd:

“You’re right, Mr. Chairman.”

“We need to raise awareness first.”

The chairman continued:

“Also, every household should have an earthquake emergency kit. Do you have one at home?”

The crowd responded:

“Yes, Mr. Chairman.”

“Every household should have one.”

Then, a never-ending discussion began about what the earthquake kits should contain.

“Three days’ worth of food.”

“Water.”

“Scissors.”

“A whistle” …

The meeting took a break. Outside, officials gathered in groups and began whispering among themselves:

“An earthquake kit, they say. What good is an earthquake kit if you don’t make your building safe?”

“Seventy percent of the buildings are unsafe. They all need to be rebuilt. But no money is being allocated for that.”

“What good will educating a child do when a ceiling falls on their head?”

“Inspections need to be tightened, and corruption needs to end.”

“Everything is tolerated for the sake of profit.”

As the break came to an end, I passed by two officials talking with the chairman on my way back to the meeting room. I heard the chairman whisper to them, “Seventy percent of the buildings are unsafe.”

We went back into the room. The meeting resumed. The chairman turned to the crowd:

“Yes, education, awareness… Any other ideas?”

A voice from the crowd said:

“There should also be a battery-powered radio in the earthquake kit.”

A murmur spread through the crowd:

“Yes, he is right. The electricity will go out.”

“Telephone and internet connections will be down.”

“Yes, a battery-powered radio.”

“And a flashlight!”

Collapse chats & diaries, Featured blogs, sites & lit works, Reflections, Sense-making crisis, Turkey

Helplessness is good

!Epic Tomorrows

The piece below was originally published on the blogsite, thingsfromsomewhere; republished with permission.

As our world becomes a worse and worse place, we are constantly told to stay away from negative feelings. While we are all living in a catastrophe, we chase happiness. But what catches us is indifference.

I suggest neither foolish optimism nor paralyzing pessimism, neither false hope nor a hopelessness that mortgages the future. Let us feel a genuine helplessness.

When we feel helpless, we face how terrible the current situation is, we appreciate what is better and more beautiful, and we know our inability to reach it, but we do not close ourselves off to possibilities. For now, we may see no light around; but we do not make a final judgment about how long the darkness will last. Because while hopelessness is about the situation, helplessness is about ourselves.

So helplessness is good; better than playing at being happy, and than a dead indifference.

Featured blogs, sites & lit works, Reflections, Turkey

Lion in a Cage / Lonely Death

!Epic Tomorrows

The two pieces below were originally published on the blogsite, thingsfromsomewhere; republished with permission.

Lion in a Cage

It feels as if our hearts are desperately searching for something or running away from something. Maybe both are the same thing. We cannot bear to drift in emptiness.

Maybe we are running away from unspoken words. Those troublesome words. Trying to express feelings with words is like putting a lion in a cage for people to watch. We are searching for a noise loud enough to silence the words left unspoken.

We are running away from the darkness, towards a flood of colors so bright that it blinds us; to hide the light that darkness cannot.

***

Lonely Death

A man in his fifties who lived alone was found dead in his home. It had been several days since his death. Then the talk began. If you live alone, they won’t find your body right away. If you live alone, you die young. Living alone is bad for your health.

Fortunately, all the people writing these things had their families by their side. A day or two later, they forgot about the whole thing, and about death. They started reading other news. Cases of domestic violence, rates of spouses cheating on each other and the lower rates of divorce, a mother who killed her mentally disabled child and then herself, a man who ran away with his neighbor’s wife, a woman who abandoned her children.

As these ordinary events came and went, they fell asleep at night holding their spouses and dreamed of other people.