Turkey Got Me thinking...

When we were in Turkey, we had a chance to visit some beautiful old Mosques. The Hagia Sophia is no longer an active Mosque, but a museum, so it is not subject to the same regulations that you must follow when entering. But the Blue Mosque is very much in use today, and you have to follow strict rules regarding dress code when you visit. I was almost in a panic when we were getting ready to go in. I was so concerned about tyring not to offend anybody; I always try to leave a good impression for Brits and Americans when I travel. The visit went without incident and I was quite glad when we made it through without getting yelled at. (The Turkish bath-house was a whole different matter. Needless to say, there are certain rules regarding "exposure" that I had to learn about.)

I started thinking how glad I was that Christianity was different, how we don't have all of those rules and regulations to follow. But the more I thought about it, I realized that people who have never been to church and don't know what Christianity is all about must feel exactly as I did when entering the Blue Mosque. All they know is what they have seen and heard, and I know for a fact that what people see and hear about Christianity from the outside is not always the best picture.

The experience has left me with a renewed desire to show the world that Christianity is different, and also a new appreciation of how people must feel when coming to church for the first time. One thing I really like about the church that we currently attend is that part of their "vision" is to be a church for the unchurched. Though I am sure that it would be a harrowing experience for someone who has never been to church, everything is in place to help newcomers to learn and grow.

As a Christian, there are two simple rules to follow: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. In keeping those two rules, everything else falls into place. There are no stringent rules about what we can eat or drink, what we should wear, how many times a day we should pray (though the bible says we should pray continually), or how we should worship.

Unfortunately, some people think that kind of freedom is too much. Additional rules are added (for our own good of course), because we can't handle this freedom that God has given us. Often the net result is that the focus is no longer on loving God and our neighbors, but on fulfilling the other rules that we have created. As if by following all of the rules we can be good enough to get into heaven...

JE

Turkey

We are now back from Turkey, although a little later than we anticipated. A technical problem with the aircraft leaving Istanbul caused a two-hour delay, which meant that we missed our connecting flight in Milan. The net result was that we had to spend the night in a hotel in Milan (at the airlines expense) and we ended up enjoying the bountiful complementary table wine with a couple of nice German guys. Rather than go into a detailed account of our trip, I thought I would list my favourite things (in random order):

1 - The Hagia Sophia Mosque (so incredibly old).




2 - Sitting under a full moon on the roof top terrace of our hotel (sadly no picture here because it was too dark). You could see the top of the minarets of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and the bay in the other direction.

3 - Chicken Kebaps. Simple roasted chicken (with some magical spices) and a few slices of tomato wrapped up in a fresh tortilla like thing. Such a beautiful thing, especially for about $1.50 each. (no picture due to the fact that I devoured it as soon as it arrived)

4 - The Turkish folk singer. This guy was really amazing. He had a great voice, and it was amazing what he could do with his instrument (still trying to find out what his instrument is called). He was like the Eddie Van Halen of Turkish folk music complete with the hammer-on soloing.




5 - Turkish Coffee - tiny cups of thick strong coffee.




6 - The ruins of Troy. Fascinating to see how they kept rebuilding the city on top of the old one. Troy has seen ten different incarnations. (sorry, I forgot my internet friends and did not take any digital pictures here)

7 - Turkish baths. You lie on a giant heated marble slab and roast for a while. Then a big hairy Turkish guy comes in and beats the crap out of you (they call it a massage), including a good soaping and scrubbing. Then you get wrapped up in warm dry towels. (again no pictures of this for obvious reasons)

8 - Fresh roasted tuna. It was very simply prepared with a light breading and delicate spices. The fish was so fresh and cooked to perfection. I had to get over the fact that it was served with its head on and therefore staring at me the whole time I was eating it.

9 - Breakfast at our hotel. Again, the simplicity was the key. Slices of fresh tomato and cucumber, soft salty cheese, fresh bread, olives, hot tea.

10 - Smoking the Nargile (hookah). They had a great place set up in what used to be (hundreds of years ago) a school for religious studies. The class rooms were converted into carpet and trinket shops, and the courtyard in the middle was set up with chairs and couches for lounging and smoking for hours on end. We went twice, and ended up buying a small rug and a hookah from the friendly guys whose shop happened to be near our couch (I'm sure it is no accident that the tourists get put near all of the shops.




You can see some more pictures from our trip here.

JE

What Do I Know?

I had a really bad dream a couple of nights ago. Someone had broken into our house and stolen all of my musical equipment. Guitars, speakers, amplifiers, computers were all gone. I was devastated because there was no way to replace any of it. This dream was brought on by the fact that we are going away for a week, the dogs will be left in the kennels, and it would be very easy for someone to break into our house. So last night I bought some property insurance to cover the contents of our lowly little house. Heather reminded me of an old song that I wrote some time in college (note: this is not a very good song, if you are offended by hastily written lyrics, cheap clichés, and contrived stories please look away now).

(verse 2)
So one day my car was broken and I had to catch a bus
I sat next to a friendly man who said his name was Gus
I asked 'bout his job and I asked 'bout his day
As he was reading in the paper about clones and DNA
With a big black shiny brief case and a Windsor knotted tie
He tried to sell me house insurance to protect the things I buy
I said I don't know about money, there's not that much I own
And I don't know why the scientists are trying to make clones
but there is one thing I know...

(chorus)
There's been a change in me
I was blind but now I see
And now I know the truth
And the truth has set me free...

I had to look up the words in my old songbook because I couldn't really remember it. I told Heather that is must be a really good song for her to remember it after all these years. She told me that she did not remember it because it was a very good song, but because I played it over and over again (apparently I do this with all my songs, in addition, there is a "riff" that I always play on my guitar that drives her nuts). She thought it was funny that I had written this song as an idealistic college student with no care for my possessions, and now I was buying house insurance from Tesco and having nightmares about my precious guitars getting stolen.

It seems that things were much simpler then. Now I am closer to the guy wearing the Windsor knotted tie, than I am to the idealistic person striking up a conversation on a bus with a stranger. At the same time, I know that I have grown since I wrote that song. My values have not really changed very much, but I have a deeper understanding of the complexities involved. I have learned that everything is not as cut and dry as it once seemed to me. I know why the scientists would want to make clones (though I don't necessarily agree with it). I know there have been many great quotes regarding getting older, knowing more, knowing less, blah, blah, blah. Here's one from Oscar Wilde:

"I am not young enough to know everything"

Art is taking a back seat to engineering...

So the big trade show is quickly closing in. I have desperately been working on four new products that will be unveiled for the first time. Not everything is working completely, but it is in good enough shape to do some demos.

This Saturday morning I take the train down to London early in the morning. I help set up and provide technical support for a big meeting that the sales and marketing department is putting on for our distributors. I'm staying overnight in London, then on Sunday the actual tradeshow begins. I really like travelling for work, probably because I don't have to do it very often. It is always a novelty for me to stay in a hotel room that someone else is paying for, and to eat what I want at a restaurant (within reason) knowing that someone else is paying the bill.

Despite the insane amount of work that goes into preparing for a trade show, I really do enjoy them when they roll around. Some people think we might not ever finish a design if it were not for the deadline of releasing a new product at a trade show. It's probably not far from the truth, especially for me with my procrastinating nature. It is even more interesting now that I can visit with people I know from my previous company in Salt Lake.

Unfortunately, the extra work and stress is killing me artistically. I am not working on new songs, I am not even practicing old songs, and I am not reading any books. I come home from work at night and collapse on the couch without much motivation to do anything. I am still getting plenty of sleep, it's just that my brain is spinning from all of the "engineering" that it has been doing all day. Heather claims that I am always "aloof" when I get home from work. It can be a challenge to switch over from engineering mode to relational mode. I can't help but wonder what I might be able to achieve artistically if I wasn't using all of my mental power on other things.

JE

PS - In case any of you are wondering about the football practise on Monday. It actually went pretty well. My skills were definitely rusty (it was embarrassing when I had to do long distance passing with my left foot), but physically I was able to keep up. I did use a bunch of muscles that I have not used for a while, so I have been a little sore for the last couple of days. There is another practise this coming Monday and I am looking forward to that. Fortunately football does not require the same mental attention that engineering does.