I spent an hour reading through Turkey's history, from it's initial small villages 8,000 years ago to the present stress to enter the European Union, with the press of Islamic power struggles.I copied down each successive stage: the Hittites, the Persians, Alexander the Great, Constantine and later the Seljuks, then the Christians during the Crusades; the Mongol invasion, the Ottoman dynasty with Suleiman the Magnificent; and eventually Ataturk, who moved the vision and power away from Turkish/Muslim rule to secular law and the merging of values and culture that prevail now in Turkey. All this reading, just so I could move forward into the recipes of "Turquoise" by Greg and Lucy Malouf!
An experiment, sprouted barley rounds, an ancient flatbread.
Served warm for breakfast, with mango chutney, eggs and chard.I'm also reading "The Last Secrets of the Silk Roadl" by Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, about four women exploring the old Silk Road. When they were in Kyrgyzstan, I google-earthed some of the locations, to study the terrain. Stunningly beautiful, with little box icons that could be pressed to see photos.
There were little white houses that had open-air second floors covered by a roof - grain was stored up there. I'm finding photos on Flickr to match the writer's text, even down to the meals they cook in that country, the customs and prayers before meals (Namaz).
I was so curious about the sequencing of gestures and positions of the Namaz that I researched it online, and found a video that shows this Muslim prayer. Just amazing, life in this world.Also read "Unbound" by Dean King. He writes about Chinese peasants, 30 whom were women, who did the Long March in 1934. These soldiers covered more than four thousand miles on foot through the most unbearable terrain. Under enemy fire, they crossed southern China, battling warlords and mountain tribes, forded the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, walked along high mountain plateaus, through quicksand marshes and snowy mountain passes.
It was a remarkable survival story of women who forged a sisterhood, wanting equality and better living conditions for their families. They suffered so many unbelievable situations and predicaments - delivering babies while under fire, and leaving the baby on the road for someone to find; walking so cold and exhausted that they had to hold onto horse tails to keep moving. This journey would become one of the most horrific in Chinese history.
I'm also reading, "In Search of My Homeland - a memoir of a Chinese labor camp". Er Tai Gao now lives in Nevada, but spent decades imprisoned by Mao's regime for writing 'subversive thoughts' which were published in a small volume called, "On Beauty". In this, he states that freedom is the most important political stand for an artist, that one must be free to dissent from the dominant ideology, thereby making beauty, both its creation and perception, its ultimate symbol.
And lastly, I finished "Blindsided: Surviving a Grizzly Attack and Still Loving the Great Bear" by Jim Cole. He survived a brutal grizzly attack in Yellowstone Park. He'd been hiking alone, and surprised the bear, who had a cub. Cole didn't have time to reach his bear spray before the bear tore off his face and flattened him. The book was about his recovery, and his desire to safeguard the domain of the grizzly. He eventually went back to the place where he was attacked - this time with a companion, and they made lots of noise! Cole died last July of natural causes at age 60, just a few years after the attack.
