Turkey: M.1


Last year at this time I was reading about Islam and in some ways deathly afraid of the trip to Turkey that was right on my door step. I have found lately though that I am missing Turkey in some ways. The other day I got out some dried apricots and I stopped, I don’t know why but something was familiar about the smell. I kept thinking and thinking as I was chopping them up to put in oatmeal, where do I know that smell. Then it hit me, every morning in Turkey dried apricots were at breakfast. I maybe only ate one in Turkey, but the smell reminded me of our first hotel in Istanbul and looking out the window at the Blue Mosque.

Another memory point has been my reading over the last several months. Just recently I started reading a book on the history of the Knights Templar. In the course of the book Constantinople was mentioned and its part in the crusade history. I found myself visualizing the walls that circled the city, the aqueduct with roads running under it, and the hippodrome that the people I’m reading about would have seen. I keep thinking I need to go back with Katie and Olivia and see all of this stuff again.

The nip in the air this time of year also invoked a memory of Turkey, particularly Capadocia. I remember standing on the hill looking at the bank right in front of me with hovels carved out in it. My breath hung, as billowy puffs of smoke, in the air while the big white Anatolian Shepard dog pushed its massive head into my leg so I would pet it. When I was in Turkey I didn’t think I would actually miss it. I think the reason is I wasn’t prepared on my first over seas trip to engage the people, and take in the history or landscape. I believe I will take Katie and Olivia there some day, and take our time so we can learn from the people and the history in that amazing place.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ortega: "Man Has No Nature"

"Man has to be himself in spite of unfavorable circumstances; that means he has to make his own existence at every single moment. He is given the abstract possiblity of existing, but not the reality." Today unfortunatly I got very little opportunity to read but when I did I was able to read and excerpt from Ortega (of course dealing with existentialism). Ortega has a very nice writing style that is very understandable but also thought provoking. This quote I have above is the first two sentences of the selection. What struck me about these sentences is the reality of it. Man is the one that chooses his reality. That is he chooses who or what he is to be. Man is under the influence of countless things in his life, religion, politics, friends, and family, not to mention history in general but it is his/her choices that influences his/her reality. I am not saying that man creates his /her reality apart or separate from physical scientific reality. What I am saying is th
Read more

Theology vs. Scripture

I've been doing some thinking. I've been apart of and have been watching the discussion taking place on Locust and Honey on the General conference. I did post some statements but recently a relatively short discussion on homosexuality has surfaced. Now this is a hot button issue for pretty much everyone but there were a few issues I had with the various points that were given, as well as some thoughts on what is happening in the church right now around this issue. First off, I was struck by the insistence that the church needs to be open and affirming. I am not making any claims on whether this is right or wrong but the church has never in its history been an "open and affirming" organization. This is just a statement of fact, and I find it quite interesting that most people claim that the Methodist church needs to be open and affirming when I believe that John Wesley would not have been. Lest we forget John was known for kicking people out of his societies if
Read more

Stewardship Prayer

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-13 Central Verse: “…but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” 1 Kings 19:14b-13 Central Truth: This is the second lesson in our stewardship series and it focuses on Prayer. This may seem like an odd verse to focus on prayer within our membership vows but we must take the time to begin to understand in the most basic elements what prayer is. Prayer is communication with God. With communication there are two important attributes to the conversation. The first is listening and the second is speaking. Most people would put speaking as the primary for conversation but it is just the opposite which is listening. When we speak about prayer in its most basic components we are talking about conversation. Most of the time it feels like we do all the talking. We fill up the silence of our lives with it. This relegates the ro
Read more