Stars and Bars

Two nights ago there was a meteor shower so Selcuk, Nehir, Anne and I went up to our roof-top balcony and watched falling stars.  Nehir saw the first one, and then fell asleep.  I saw about ten. At one point I saw what I thought was a falling star enter my field of vision but as it passed overhead it morphed into a huge flying animal and scared me half to death.  It was two bats that were probably only about five or six inches across but they looked bigger because they were lit from underneath and flew a few yards overhead.  It was a nice night but I noticed I became pretty superstitious about the wishes.  I kept thinking of more things I needed wish for and so I would stay up a little longer so I could make the next wish.  I did eventually go to bed.

Last night Selcuk and I went to a bar on the beach to watch a Galatasaray football (soccer) game.  It was really fun but at times frustrating because there was also a Fenerbahce game on (a rival team) and the owner kept switching to that game even though we had paid to watch the Galatasaray game.  I had fun anyway, I like being in a crowd of fans sometimes.  The game was a tie.

I read in my book that one of the few consistent correlates between childhood variables and adult depression is whether or not children have chores.  Children who have chores are less likely to develop depression.  I suspect it has to do with "flow" or the experience of loosing a sense of time.  Flow is not necessarily a "happy" experience, more a meditative experience that happens when we are immersed in something and it is strongly connected to a sense of well-being.  A weird finding is that very wealthy kids experience less flow, and I am guessing it is because they do not have as many responsibilities that offer the chance to get immersed in something.  So at any rate, I asked Nehir what chore he wanted and after hearing a list of age-appropriate chores, he came up with the not age-appropriate chore of doing the dishes.  I agreed that we could do the morning dishes together (less of them) from now on.  He LOVES doing the dishes and he is a really hard worker.  He reminds me he should do the dishes when I forget.  I am really proud of him.  

Taylan is doing his thing; smiling, mooing at the cows, chatting nonsensically with the neighbors.  He is a delight.