small christmas gathering

when you are far away, you are far away from home. home means people who share your sentiments along the way. home means when you look through the looking glass, all colors and shapes you see are familiar. home is an old ferris wheel which reminds more memories than your porch chair. it's wind, it's blizzards, it's sunshine, it's life.

2006 christmas will be remembered as the year of "mass-a-thone", 3 masses in 24 hours. since I spend most of my time apart from the town I call home in Turkey, I have missed my church buddies. it was a good chance to reconcile. most of them brits, some canadians and americans. some christian turks. a parish of under 30 people, but it's christmas no matter what.

in southern turkey it's mid-40's, sunny, and of course no snow. but it's still christmas.a small tree, carols on tape, some good mozart, and it's over.

I will be on and off the net for the week to come. but do come, because I will be sharing more thoughts on children, squeezed between the west and the east, children of turkey, and their feelings about Santa Claus and new year presents (as they exchange presents on new years' eve here not on christmas day).

Merry Christmas y'all.

His Holiness visits Turkey

the attraction ended yesterday. but what a mess. his holiness was the only person who can travel in istanbul for three days. in the name of making their faces clean in international media, turkish authorities provided all amenities to pope Benedict ignoring the needs of over one and a half million people living in the city.

he visited holy spots vastly available in western turkey including "house of virgin mary" near ephesus, a giant mosque and of course the hagia sofia, the monumental state of the art architectural piece in istanbul.

the political aspects of the visit aside, he threw compliment after compliment towards turkish public and authorities, an innuendo for apologies for so taken words of his against islam. these were not reciprocated so handfully though. both people and authorities were cynical and reactive towards the political approach of his previous speeches on islam.

his meeting with orthodox christian patriarch bartolemeos was a different story and the real target of his visit to turkey. they have attended st. andreas mass together at fanari and declared betterement of relations between two sects.

my only comment is, as a christian living in the country, we had no access whatsoever to his holiness as a community. that had to do with security I guess, and he went back to Vatican in one piece, we should all be thankful for that.

at least the holiday season this year started with a real event. (sorry for being so superficial on the matter, but it really was that!)