In an episode of The Ganges With Sue Perkins, Sue (major girl crush alert), cramming herself almost on top of Raffiuddin, an unassuming young handloom weaver (the poor, poor guy), asked — like any good-intentioned white woman — what his dreams were. With a stupefied face, he answered:
“I don’t have time to dream”.
Like millions of fellow humans (whom we know zilch about, and prefer not to anyway), his life is one gigantic “groundhog day”, he has seen nothing, done nothing, dreamt nothing, and will most likely stick around in the same infernal pit till mother Ganga swallow the last of his remains.
Leap of Faith. Latin: Saltus fidei. Türkçe: Inanç sıçraması
Turns out pretty tricky finding a definition for this seemingly simple term. Nothing is straightforward those days y’all, not even plant milk, I mean you got blanched/ roasted/sugar-free/ gluten-free/ Fortified/ flavoured/ Barista style, and we are just talking Almonds. But selling people some wishy-washy story about a bored rich white dude, who on a whim throws it all — mind you, whims applicable only to people of a certain race, bank account, and country of origin — to travel across the globe — with the money he “ threw away” — to some monastery, or island or igloo and experience what’s it to basically live like the remainder of homo sapiens , and then call that a Leap Of Faith is — donno about you — makes me wanna punch … well my poor punching bag.
I don’t claim to have cracked the code on what faith is, but isn’t faith a sort of trust/ belief in the face of insufficient — or none existing– evidence? ya know, things like humanity, your partner isn’t just dumb, the chocolate cake you’re stuffing your face with is — as per waiter — “vegan”, your cat loves you .… etc
So I did what I always do, understand by way of synonyms/ antonyms. And a few minutes later … bull’s eye.
Leap Of Faith (LOF) top synonyms: Gamble, Blind date, Grab bag, pig in a poke, green cheese.
Now with “Leap Of Faith” properly defined let’s jump into the meat and potatoes of this blog.
How/ When/ Why did I move to Istanbul. AKA: My personal LOF.
First, honestly who cares — I barely care myself — I mean the current world population as of February 2022 is 7.9 Billion, 15.82 Million of whom reside in Istanbul — leap of faith or not — but I am telling it anyway, and would like to claim that faith, or at least the act of leaping is part of the bargain.
So here is what’s what in a Jiffy:
1- The idea — not my undying wish — hit me like a ton of bricks one delightful day at 3:00 am, after 3 cups of extra dark coffee and 2 bananas (make of that what you like, you’ll probably be right)
2- The decision, as in cross my heart and hope to die, never back off or give up came 2 minutes after (the bananas)
3- Three weeks (of paperwork hell) later I was on a plane — or flying can of sardines — chock full of aliens (humans post-COVID19 .. the masks, DUH).
4- No plan .. as in NO plan.
5- No money, other than the bare minimum that “may” keep me from cozying up under some bridge, and only for a while.
6- No friends or family in Istanbul. However, I have a deep connection to the dogs and cats who in fact rule the streets of Istanbul (you have no idea, you gotta see to believe)
7- I don’t speak the local dialect
8- I am broke … just a reminder in case you got me mixed up with the bunch who sold their Ferraris or Igloos.
9- I am VEGAN, which ain’t fun in Istanbul. But that’s a sob story for later.
10- I just lost my best buddy, my canine companion of 13 years, and was still grieving
11- It was January and FREEZING (not sure if the fact that I had one coat with holes in it adds pizzazz to my story)
12- It was one of the happiest moments of my life. And I still carry that same crazy illogical thrill/ happiness/ joy one and a half months later.
So these are my two cents (Liras) on what I assume is a micro leap of faith.
To be Continued ….