Quelle bonheur hier soir, sheer happiness, the dinner with our new friends Berna and Feza. He’s a maths professor at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, she’s a graduate student in Sociology at UC Santa Cruz writing her dissertation on Nurcu (in Turkey). Good food and good music (Kardes Turkuler, Aynur, Crossing the Brigde…) and much more to share, including the feeling (at least for three of us, pauvre Maria…) of not “earthing” (a literal translation of the beautiful flemish expression “aarden”) in this place. The way the public sphere is done (or rather not done, undone, broken, eaten away…), the reign of individualism… A grand theory in the making: it’s all the fault of protestantism (remember how they are to blame for capitalism as well?). And by coincidence this slightly crude and perhaps not totally fair hypothesis maps precisely on the fault-line between the places where i’ve managed to make homes thus far and where not… Oh well, what a relief to laugh it all away in good company. Which holds the promise of another kind of home, with a shared laughing away of what makes a space so difficult to inhabit.
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All of this embedded in another coincidence which isn’t one. The Connections, la famille, la Cosa Nostra – feminist style. Berna found the beautiful house near the ocean through meeting Bettina in Santa Cruz and realising that they had been together at IFU. In the information project area, meaning we had some friends in common (Isabel, Seda,… ). Soon after that we elaborated on the Amargi connection (Pinar, Yesim,… ). Then came the NOISE summerschool connection (Meyda…). Feminist mafias of some kind. To new friendships and old connections. |