When I was asked to chat or write for "Highlights", which has just begun to be published; I said, “If we are going to talk only about the sea and life in the sea, it doesn't make much sense, and we have friends who have already written/ told about it.”

 

Since they said "On the contrary", I intend to digress from the subject and even to open up a little bit about what else a heart delivered to the sea can hide, in a series divided into several chapters.

 

 

Chapter 1: BEING THE OTHER

 

What would you do if you found a bag of money?

 

a) I would look for the owner of the bag.

b) I would let it rest for a while.

 

It was about 15 years ago. They asked on a live television show. The presenter (Beyazit) said, "We didn't want to be too rude for the second option," and asked a large number of guests/large audience of the studio to choose one of the buttons (choices) on the portable devices distributed to them.

 

The results in percentage were as follows:

 

a)45

b)55 

 

Beyazıt said, “Those who choose option B, raise your hands,” and we witnessed the honesty (!) with laughter, including the enthusiasm of the majority who raised their hands.  It was an interesting observation. I thought of searching for a moment saying “Ask one more question to those who chose the second option”. Then I changed my mind. Continuing like this would actually complete the circle:

 

What do you think about those who said "I would look for the owner of the bag"?

Which option would prevail?

 

 

Back to the title...

 

My troubles with searching/finding words to help explain life to myself are about 40 years old. I feel I wouldn't exaggerate if I say I've travelled slightly more than a step. Of course, it's necessary to question what we couldn't complete in individual journeys. The reasons are roughly clear: One didn't work hard enough, couldn't act consistently/disciplined, postponed things and couldn't find the opportunity due to certain responsibilities or burdens, and the price is paid by a few people together with him but societies/countries don't have such a right! Because the words that describe how tens of millions of people have to pay the price throughout generations are much heavier.

 

This chapter will be a bit sad to read. I know nobody would be convinced much by addressing critical sadness, which also contains a little fortitude, ranging from our clear escapes such as laughing, having fun, crying to our faulty sides, but there is benefit in repetition/insistence. Some parentheses will inevitably be letters to the address. Anyways...

 

The fate of the 78 generation, especially those raised on these lands, is one of the saddest harvests of the geography they belong to. A generation that considers worrying and propositions about social life a virtue to the extent that they forget about themselves, that realizes that they're a little late when they remember themselves, that has to deal with a torrent of emotions such as "He left no stone unturned"!

 

It was not easy to understand and accept that work, income and even love cannot reconcile with utopian feelings. It wasn't accepted still but maybe it's also important to pass such exams. 

 

In today's world or in the near future, I don't think that being the other will have anything to do with ethnicity or religious/sectarian affiliation. Of course, there have been sharp/tragic examples in the historical process but I also believe that their validity period has expired or is about to expire, except specifically obscuring some facts.

 

Being the other is a tragedy in itself.  The most universal is being the other against appetite and lust. Undoubtedly, it's not the problem of today, but the one that has continued since/will continue from the beginning of time to eternity but it is the one that becomes more apparent when one looks from the standpoint of the only role, work and responsibility of man in building of civilization.

 

The situation is crystallizing more and more. According to today's world, its humiliating effect is increasing exponentially. The language of communication/interaction naturally revealed more.  Because the kind of issues, including it is often not enough to be qualified and knowledgeable, exemplary behavior to humanity is not worth it, life does not have a problem with being fair, are also included in awareness. It was always important to revise the understanding of profit and not to forget the social programs (social state) in the economy, it will be vital tomorrow.

 

Individual/social borders as well as the borders of countries, unions and blocks are also fault lines, they break as they stretch. Of course, we won't refrain from expressing this when we're no fisherman in the sea. It is also clear that we don't represent an appetite and lust that will carry a double standard.

 

As a sailor who rented a sailboat in the early/mid 90's, sometimes by sharing the cost and sometimes by saving during the year, the second and last sailboat I own now is 22 years old. Its engine is 85 HP. As everyone knows, the cruise we can go by turning off the ignition is almost unlimited. I never dreamed of forcing the feelings of satisfaction that would impress anyone, even if I could afford more!

 

I'm not one of those with thousands of hp twin-engines who think that, as their volume grows, they have bought larger land rights from life and coves! And I don't say this with the intention of enmity against success, wealth, etc. I don't have such thoughts either.

 

I would like to emphasize that man's hopeless appetite and tolerance for lust won't be the same as they were in the past, that it is a great courage and ignorance to think/hope that the marginalized population will simply watch and accept the whole thing, if such state of behavior is not revised. Because that's how I feel, that's how I think.

 

What I want to address in the other chapters of the series is that emotions/topics will certainly flourish about the legacy from the elders who rode on their white horses (We can also read this as those who sailed with their white boats), about the tips, courage, kindness, relative rudeness, duties and responsibilities of life at sea.

 

I'll also address memories not only from the sea, but also from the whole life that has adopted the principle of making room for it, maybe by talking about literature, poetry, art, and of course, being careful not to bore you! I have no words for the others of the other!

 

In brief...

 

We were the children of rivers leaning their back on the green valleys,

curling up tirelessly and

longing for their sea

Clinging to a time where

our games were not yet surrounded by the virtual ones,

we never really grew up

 

... having said those lines, I've touched the memories of the past, and let the draft of a fresh poem remain in our tongues as the gift of the article.🙂

 

I'll deepen the conversation by going back and forth/right and left in time/space, little by little. I'll also talk about my childhood which was spent in the middle coast of the Black Sea, close to bays, villages, districts and cities, some of which were by the sea and some of which were located a few miles inland...

 

(Since I'm going to talk mostly about "water", I used the word "miles", but land miles, which I used because of my sailor spirit, not because of my admiration for America, which I don't already have🙂)

 

I'll also talk about how I began to swim in child-spirited rivers that roared through sharp bends...

 

I guess I was 9-10 years old at the time.  I'll talk about meeting the sea not on optimists, but on our boats made of tractor tubes...

 

I'll talk about enjoying the taste of going over, with our very original, patched rubber boats, the waves hitting the bottom structure close to the shore, which were quite huge for us, and being privileged in the deep waters stretching behind them...

 

I'll talk about getting to know poets with a childlike spirit at the age of 14-15... About loving them more as you get to know them slowly without rush...

 

Being inspired by them, I'll talk about new enthusiasms that the sea is not a puddle that carries you or the wind of which you play with and on which you race...

 

I'll tell talk about the fact that we don't care about the sea that is filtered from poetry, songs, story and that doesn't open...

 

I'll talk about knowing that there are others... Realizing that we have to share/protect nature, air and water equally... For example, about establishing a bond of heart with Gandhi's suggestion "Live simply so that others may simply live"...

 

 

If we ask ourselves now, without sinking into lies. Assuming such responsibilities, do you believe in a life of remembrances/reminders?

Let the second question come for those who say no🙂

 

"What do you think of those who say yes?"

 

The result is not difficult to predict! In fact, it is no longer surprising to see the motivation of the hands raised to show their own preference. I guess we need to go back to where honesty takes the test and look more carefully!

 

Although, of course, you will have to cling to hope. To reach into the future by doing what is right for all of us, not what is good for ourselves, will be good for our forests, our streams, our rivers, and our seas, which they struggle to reach to, meet and get mixed with, just like us.  

 

Mehmet Aslantuğ / Kalamış, 31.10.2022