Amasya: Nature, history, and time with friends

 This summer, as a family, we had the chance to visit Ankara and Amasya. We really enjoyed it, and I'll share a few pictures. We had a really lovely time with the friends that we visited!

Amasya is famous for apples, and we got to visit a small family orchard of mixed fruits. We sampled peaches, apples, and plums fresh from the tree!

A child picking plums from a tree so heavy laden that branches broke.

Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin statue - he was a innovative and skilled healer writing one of the great texts on healing in the 1400s. The herbs he recommended for use are planted around the museum with labels and details for how they were to be used. He also believed in using music to support the healing of those with mental health disorders (as we would describe it). The pictures of his implements and methods (which he illustrated in his books) makes surgery sound terrifying. I don't suppose it's any more attractive these days.

text about Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin and the hospital he worked in which is now the museum

The inner courtyard of the hospital (now museum)

a historic door in the Amasya History Museum; it has dragons on it. You can see them more clearly below.

look at the handles

a variety of oil lamps

vessels for pouring out drink offerings / libations

3500-year-old ancient statue

Amasya's riverfront at night

Amasya's river houses illuminated at night

'Pollution and the Death of Man' - an odd title for a helpful book

  Books that speak to the real issues of humanity have a way of enduring. About 2 years ago when I posted 'Wasteful Wardens of the Planet', one of you readers suggested 'Pollution and the Death of Man: The Christian View of Ecology' by Francis Schaeffer. Excepting the appendix, his words fill only about 80 pages and were published in 1970 with deep concern for both the destructive human habits towards our world and the lack of a biblical mindset on the topic by those who claim the Bible as their guide. The book can still be read with benefit as a valuable guide to where we're [still] at, where we should be at, and where others are [still] at around us. Schaeffer, as normal, is gracious, perceptive, and unafraid to say when he believes others are more biblical in their thoughts or actions than Bible-claimers are.

 Below I just want so share some of the quotations that I found thought-provoking although these quotations won't form a full comment on the book. (Bold emphasis added; italics original.)

Psychologically I ought to "feel" a relationship to the tree as my fellow creature ... we should realize, and train people in our churches to realize, that on the side of creation  and on the side of God's infinity and our finiteness-we really are one with the tree. (pg 54)

So the Christian treats "things" with integrity because we do not believe they are autonomous. (pg 54)

God makes a promise here [in Genesis 9] that embodies  all creation. God is interested in creation. He does not despise it. There is no reason whatsoever, and it is absolutely false biblically, for the Christian to have a platonic view of nature. What God has made, I, who am also a creature, must not despise. (pg 61)

[Citing Romans 8], The blood of the Lamb will redeem man and nature together, as it did in Egypt at the time of the Passover, when the blood applied to the door-posts saved not only the sons of the Hebrews, but also their animals. 

It is interesting that almost the whole "curse" in Genesis 3 is centered upon the outward manifestations. It is the earth that is going to be cursed for man's sake. It is the woman's body that is involved in the greatly multiplied conception and pain in childbirth. (pg 67)

On the basis of the fact that there is going to be total redemption in the future, not only of man but of all creation, the Christian who believes the Bible should be the man who -with God's help and in the power of the Holy Spirit- is treating nature now in the direction of the way nature will be then. (68-69)

Killing of animals for food is one thing, but on the other hand they do not exist simply as things to be slaughtered. ... Many men fish and leave their victims to rot and stink. But what about the fish? Has he no rights -not to be romanticized as though he were a man- but real rights? On the one hand it is wrong to treat the fish as though it were a human baby; on the other hand, neither is it merely a chip of wood. 

It is always true that if you treat the land properly, you have to make two choices. The first is in the area of economics. It costs more money, at least at first, to treat the land well. ... The second choice involved is that it usually takes longer to treat the land properly. And these are the two factors that lead to the destruction of our environment: money and time- or to say it another way, greed and haste.

[Regarding certain people's explicit call to pantheistic belief as an aid to ecological responsibility,] Pantheism gives you an answer for unity, but it gives no meaning to the diversity. (pg 30) [This philosophical question of unity and diversity is also important in his discussion of the Trinity elsewhere.]

A Recommendation, a Waxwing, and a... well, one more surprise

  The smallest graces and beauties in life often arrive quite unexpectedly. I truly love birds and seeing a variety of them. One result of this is that my current favorite game is Wingspan, a beautifully drawn and well-designed board game which a friend gifted us a few months ago. Somehow competition is combined with beauty and a pinch of education to make a thoroughly enjoyable game experience, although it's too complex for the kids still. But I digress...

  Last week on a walk along a bike trail I saw a flock of Bohemian waxwings. I wouldn't have known their name if I hadn't happened to see this article about it in the Denver Post a few days before, "A rare and beautiful bird is turning up all over Denver this winter." Apparently these waxwings haven't been to Denver since I was a toddler. They were far more beautiful than the rather distant picture below suggests. The two colorings, presumably male and female, were both lovely; and the dozens of waxwings were in no rush to go anywhere else. But this morning...!

Bohemian waxwing

 Driving down Holly Street to drop kids off for school, I saw a bald eagle! I have loved eagles since I was very young, and they always make me think of my granddad because he had a house full of bald eagles (pictures, sculptures, and whatnot). Again, the picture quality below is lacking, but the gift of seeing beautiful birds wherever I'm at was not lacking in any way. Thankfully, we had a couple minutes to get out and take pictures of the bird before I dropped the kids off. Then I went back to look at it again in quietness.

A bald eagle, in Park Hill, Denver

 I said 'quietness', but actually you may notice in the video below that the crows and magpies were thoroughly disturbed that the eagle had entered their normal space. That's what the racket is, but the eagle seems unconcerned with it. And well he should!

 Actually this is the second time in the last several months that we've seen eagles. In November, driving back from Thanksgiving, we saw some bald eagles in Kansas, but they were away across a field. So even though we trespassed into a corn field, we still couldn't get particularly close.

 

A Splendor of Change

Is it strange that this time of great beauty precedes inevitably the frost, the time of apparent death? Not that the tree corps is truly lifeless - say rather that a starker grace and fiercer outlines succeed splendor.

Where went the new growth and the flourishing of spring and summer? What travails are presaged by these swirlings and coolings?

Yet, could the knowledge of coming hardship or apparent fruitlessness be bathed in greater glory? Is there aught to warrant despair in autumnal majesty or sudden flurries?

Does not the return of golden treasure to the earth forecast a coming dawn, investing so that spring may follow frost? Indeed, it does. This is each sunset writ large, stretched from moments to fortnights.

Oh soul, wrapped in glory, resplendent within change, do not fear the doubts and struggles forecast by chilling winds. Each season gifts life, in its right time, as ordered by the Maker.

Though the maple knows not her crimson beauty, nor the aspen his golden crown, their gift is undiminished. When the sap shall barely flow and the passerby no longer pause to glance, hope shall be no less certain, ‘while the earth remains’.

Thus, each season of the earth or soul may be embraced. And, thus, in awe and thanksgiving may each trail be walked, no matter the season.

Krameria St., Denver, CO - the day of the poem

I-70 near Vail, CO

Fish Creek Falls, Steamboat Springs, CO

written October 23, 2022

Wasteful Wardens of the Planet

  This is a hard topic to write about. It's easier to express the ideas in speech, but then the details don't usually all get explored before the conversation wonders. So, in keeping with one of the purposes of this blog, I am going to try again to express the question of "Humans as Wasteful Wardens." I deleted my first attempt a couple years ago, but the idea keeps coming up. So, let me try to outline its key pieces.

1. I believe that humans were designed to be gardeners, stewards of the earth - or, maybe even of the galaxy! There is a care and compassion inherent to gardening that is so natural that it may not get much thought. Gardeners seek fruit or flowers, which requires healthy plants, which require healthy soil, which requires investment of time and work and attention and study. Shouldn't that be us all around the world - each in our own plot of land, seeking healthy provision and beauty and flourishing?
2. I believe that our Maker also designed us to multiply humans who would reflect the Maker's own image partially through elaborating on the designs built into the world. In other words, the world had been designed flawless but still had space for improvement, even in Eden! Shouldn't we be pursuing the development of what was given, whether physical or mental or spiritual or social?
3. I believe in entropy: the world is falling into disorder, and inevitably we are increasing that disorder. Since its goodness was shattered, this universe has been gradually deteriorating. Theologically, we might speak of 'sin'; scientifically, we might speak of 'the second law of thermodynamics'. Both concepts tell us that this world is not what it once was and is headed for destruction. What's worse is that we are involved, as a cause. Shouldn't we be fighting against the destruction?

  To summarize, while the world was designed to be good for humanity, humanity was also designed to be good for the world. However, our daily existence shows us that often the world is not good for us, and we are often not good for it. This should naturally lead to a bad end. Is there another way? 

Turkish kebab

 On the one hand, I'd really like to be 'green,' but I can't commit to greenness as an ideology. I can't get past its meaningless, vicious cycle. Which one? Well, imagine that I ate some kebab... at some point, I would need to wash the plate. Now, I could save it with lots of other dirty dishes and run it through the dishwasher, or I could just wash it by hand. They both consume resources though different amounts of different resources with different fall-out for the health of the earth, its systems, and my co-inhabitants. I also have the option of NOT washing the plate - so as to save water and to prevent chemical pollution. However, that may end up with me in the hospital consuming vastly more resources than I otherwise would have. In fact, no option removes me as a consumer and polluter. (Oh, and we didn't touch on the topic of the good kebab that God provided; that would be another place to consider how we are 'gardening our world'.) In every case, it feels like I am wasting or destroying part of the exact thing that I was to be enhancing, the world that I was made a steward of! I am not suggesting here that this is my only effect on the earth; I am simply suggesting that it seems inevitable that I will have some negative impact. 

 Here's a fascinating case study: This BBC article on deep sea mining shows plainly how we humans struggle to balance exploring, appreciating, and using the resources that we find. So, I am left to wonder: Can we garden without greed? Can we explore without exploitation? Can we contribute while we consume? Can we enhance while we expand? Those who love the God revealed in the Bible should be at the forefront of seeking ways to do this; that was the original design! Of course, we can't "save the planet," but we should certainly care for it as well as we can. As in so many other areas, we must value what we have been given without worshipping it. At the same time, we must engage in brokenness without trying to become the Savior.  

  Graciously, there is a solution from outside the system. If the Designer of the world were to engage the world in healing by sending help from outside the system, healing would become possible at more than a temporary or partial level. The Bible's claim is that such help has and will come. So, while recognizing the temporal hopelessness of saving the environment, it is possible for a person to garden in the world as best as they know how and also to look for a Healer who will bring in the opposite of entropy! Isaiah describes The One who will bring an increase of peace without end (9:7). How will goodness increase forever? I don't know, but I am eager to be shown.

  For thought or comment: 

• How can we apply ourselves (individually or communally) to gardening whatever space we have?
• Where can we create beauty around us?
• What do I see that needs restoring near me?
• What would I do differently if I saw myself as steward of the earth and took responsibility for such a stewardship of land and co-inhabitants?

Bougainvillea: a joyful family weakness

  Bougainvillea is, apparently, a family weakness. I was talking to my parents the other day, and it came up that they are 'disputing' the respective values of the tangerine and bougainvillea trees that are beside each other in their yard. The (perfect) shaping of the two seems mutually exclusive. Being shown the competing plants from a distance, I had to agree that the bougainvillea did seem to have the better claim to more space. (Of course, my opinion did nothing to sway the tangerine supporter.)

   Last year, my first bougainvillea gave great beauty and joy as it flourished, as depicted below.

As you can see in the next picture, this winter was not particularly kind to it. I have not been able to revive it to its normal vivacity, even though it is not without color or bloom. Even this picture has a certain pleasing symmetry, doesn't it? 

This next bougainvillea is much smaller (same one as the first picture) and was a gift on my last birthday. It is a really lovely, bright red. I don't recall ever seeing one in quite this shade. It is thriving, as the next 3 pictures show.

 

My final bougainvillea spent the winter outside because it is in a large, unmovable pot. Although it was a mild winter, a late cold snap almost doomed this one. It is finally putting out new leaves and promises to shed a different sort of beauty this summer than previously.

You can also see the ivy in the foreground here, as well as vaguely others in the background - wandering jews and a hardy, frequently-blossoming plant whose name I don't know. From a different perspective, you can see the other plants that share this final bougainvillea's pot... a spider plant and a little ground-cover plant that produces blue flowers.

Other plants (ferns, an avocado, aloe plants, long grass, and more) are sprinkled around the terrace, but these are the ones that are thriving at the moment.

Santorini, beautiful and deeply impressing

  Volcanoes are known to have frequently affected societies or civilizations. (A Mexican volcano made the news last month due to its affect 1,500 years ago on Mayan civilization.) Or you might think of Pompeii or Krakatoa and their known affects on nearby and/or distant societies. According to our tour guide on Crete, Santorini's explosion some 3,600 years ago may well have been the event that allowed the Mycenaeans to overthrow the Minoans as the area's powerful civilization (see previous post).

 Anyways, sailing into the crater of the volcano was impressing: everything you see in the first photo below was the ancient island; the crater of the volcano is the entire center section that looks like a bay. This gave an idea of the cataclysmic nature of a major volcanic event. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Panoramic shot, entering Santorini's crater

  Besides all that, Santorini is gorgeous; my favorite shot was the nighttime one below, taken by Bethany.

one section inside the crater of Santorini

night view of Santorini

town on Santorini, looks like snow

another less-explored refuge of quiet in Istanbul

  About an hour by ferry ride from Istanbul (though technically still within the city limits) lies the chain of islands known as the Princess Islands. I have previously posted about the largest one, Büyük Ada and one of the smaller, rarely-visited ones, Sedef Adası. This year, after many times of passing by them, I have visited two of the other main islands in the group, Burgazada and Heybeliada.

Burgazada, from as seen from Heybeliada

 Like Buyuk Ada, these two also have old Greek Orthodox churches or monasteries on them. On Heybeliada, there are supposed to be many old unexamined manuscripts of Christian writings and Scriptures in the library. Anyways, on the recommendation of a friend, I visited Burgazada on a day early in the summer when I needed a chance for quiet. I wandered through the wooded areas, finding my way to the top using paths instead of the main road. You can see my approximation of the path I followed in the picture below.

Burgazada

on Burgazada

Through the open window, looking into the chapel on top of Burgazada

Heybeliada

  Now as a family, we have visited Heybeliada and thoroughly enjoyed exploring it, its lovely national forest, and the quiet streets. 

with the little buddy, watching the boats and the water

Istanbul, in the distance - panoramic from Heybeliada

  In the Orthodox cemetery on Burgazada, there were a variety of interesting headstones: names that seemed to be a mix of German and Turkish (Ingrid Stiedl Ülker), headstones with German, Greek and possibly English on them; and some weren't even really accessible.

Christina K Koymake ??? 2 March 1890
Aomnika D Maypake ??? 6 October1881

from 1946 

Add caption

Ingrid Ulker (1949-1990)

Rene Glaser (1927-1947)

Franz Muhlbauer 1928-1992

  With my interest in family history, hidden cemeteries and their possible histories always interest me.