Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Merry Christmas !   Christmas is a time of anticipation, and we feel it in full force this season. We celebrate noel, the birth of the Messiah. We look forward to time with family and exchanging presents—looking especially for that delighted look on Lincoln’s face as he opens his treasures. We celebrate Lincoln’s life, as he turns two years old, and imagine what the future holds for him. We anxiously await the birth of our next son… We hope that your Christmas is as pregnant with meaning and joy as ours is this year.

Nn Nerelisin?, Ne Mutlu… Nerelisin? “Where are you from?” is a very important question. Where we are from shapes our language, social habits, religious worldview, culinary pursuits, and ideas of what is polite versus what is rude and what is cool versus what is silly. A predominant theme in Turkish culture is pride in being a Turk. Atat ü rk did much to shape this national identity, particularly with his ubiquitously quoted, Ne mutlu T ürküm diyene, “How happy is the person who says ‘I am a Turk.’” This brief phrases is seen on the front of public schools, posted on prominent statues, and quoted in various other venues throughout the country. Yes, there are regional dialects and differences, and several ethnic heritages represented in the Turkish nation, but they all have the privilege of saying “I am a Turkish citizen.” This was extremely important in the early 1900’s as Turkey was struggling for land and national unity in order to become the nation it is today. Being a Tur

Mm Memleket, Misafirperver   Two of the key elements to Turkish culture are memleket, the strong bond people have to the “hometown” they or their fathers have come from, and misafirperver, the uncompromising drive to treat others with hospitality. You may meet someone who has been born and raised in İ stanbul, but if you ask them “where are you from?” they will likely tell you the place where their father and grandfathers have come from, a place where they could have spent childhood summers, or not even been to once in their life. However often or seldom they have been to their hometown, the memleket has a huge influence on the cultural identity of the family—the types of food they make at home, regional accents, sports teams they root for, and social groups. Misafirperver , hospitality, on the other hand is a value that supersedes all regional differences of Turkey. Misafirperver is what prompts people to invite a total stranger in for tea, to take a lost tourist by the ha

Ll Lokum gibi, Le ş gibi  The human existence is full of ups and downs—moments when “fine” doesn’t seem like an adequate answer to the every day “how are you?” is posed. In Turkish two possible responses are: Lokum gibi, “like candy” ( lokum is the gooey treat we know in English as “Turkish Delight”): when the sun is shining, you ace a test, someone says “I love you,” your business sees success… OR Le ş gibi, “like a dead carcass”: when there’s rain on your parade, you’ve lost a large sum of money, there’s no end to the work day, you spill grape juice on your white shirt… Sometimes in the midst of cross-cultural analysis we have to just remind ourselves that Turkish people and American people have a huge common denominator. We both have joys and struggles. Some days we are lokum gibi and others we are le ş gibi, and not because of what our passport says, but because we are all human. What this means for us: - Sometimes we need to set aside all the dif