Once Again

For the second day in a row I’ve been shocked, by the news.  Once again I read the news before class and set out to teach all morning till noon.  And once again my students informed at the break me that there has been big news while we were meeting:  A coup in Turkey.  Once again I contemplate the implications of a very near miss. 

The day before I’d killed six hours in the Kemal Ataturk Airport.  The lounge there is splendid and it was so lovely for the second summer in a row after our proper visit to recharge, ever so slightly on Istanbul.  Outside I could make out faint minarets in the distance, the free Turkish meze, the free Turkish white wine, the free Turkish delight.  A bit reluctantly, I flew out on time that night and landed in Shanghai without incident.  Had I left a day later my flight would almost certainly have been cancelled and I’d have gotten very sick of free olives.

It was a remarkable turn around watching in the videos as the army asserted itself only to back down in defeat.  Who were the commanders who thought they could navigate such a thing? Were these orders or cajoling that made the rank and file guys think they could pull it off?  Noting the bitterness of it all, as soldiers were punched and herded into waiting areas, sulking in defeat.  The videos hardly looked like the Turkey I remembered.  I couldn’t help but watch the ones showing all the stranded travelers, as well.

Once again, I am feeling lucky to be alive and cautious of what’s to come.  I find I’m dreading tomorrow’s news cycle. What’s next?  I’m sitting here at “my” table on the second floor of the Wang Bao He hair crab restaurant across the street from the university.  Please don’t target my local crab place.  They all seem to remember me here at this officially recognized restaurant of traditional Shanghai chow.   Hairy crab on my cabbage, crab filled xiaolongbao it’s all very rich and I am most assuredly still jetlagged.   But at least I’m not encumbered by all this terrible news that following me around.