'The Changing of the Norms"
The air smells faintly of cheap coal and I can see trails of black smoke coming from the chimneys of nearby apartment buildings. By sundown the smoke will be palpable and invasive to everything. This short, five minute round trip will have me smelling like I just crawled out of a burning tire factory. Clothing and hair will become saturated with the odor of poverty’s heating source and outdoor activity will become impossible. My daily schedule during the winter months is completely rearranged so as to keep myself within the haze-free confines of my apartment between sunset and sunrise. The normalcy of brisk, fresh air nights has now been replaced by a new and unwanted normalcy.
Normal is a completely subjective term for describing something. I’ve lived in Turkey for two and a half years now and as I walk to a nearby shop for bread I find myself thinking about how the things I find normal now are very different from what they once were. It certainly doesn’t require moving to a different country for this difference in perception to occur, but it certainly helps.Â
Normal is the word we use when describing a child who has gotten into trouble. “Oh, he’s just acting like any child does at his age. Boys will be boys!” It has the effect of reassuring parents that their child is not out of control or a problem. We must, however, be careful that we don’t always accept normal as being right or good. It may be normal in Antalya to have your breathing space inundated with noxious fumes from the burning of low quality coal and treated wood but it doesn’t mean that it should be allowed to continue.
 General safety or the lack of it is an area in which the status quo should never be considered good enough. Using the word normal to describe a helmetless toddler being taxied around in the arms of their mother on the back of a motorbike helps create a kind of complacency to child endangerment that I just can’t understand.  In a city where traffic moves as if everyone is escaping Armageddon I find it unbelievable that any parent would consider putting their infant child on a scooter at all, much less without a helmet or full suit of armor. It isn’t due to any absence of caring from the parents, but there is a definite lack of balance to it. The same parents who shuttle their family four at a time on a scooter with only the father wearing a helmet will argue the dangers of going outside with wet hair in any weather, even in mid-August.Â
There’s no fool proof way to protect your kids from everything and perhaps the fear of microscopic dangers that can’t be seen are taken more seriously because the enemy you can’t see is the one you fear most while the observable motorbike and automobile in traffic seem far less daunting. Even while riding in a car many mothers opt for restraining their child with their motherly embrace in lieu of the loveless, cold grasp of the car’s seatbelt. When passing any vehicle you have the chance of seeing a child sitting on the lap of their mother in the passenger seat, unaware of their potential to become a pink fleshy missile launched through the windshield in any accident over 50 km/h.
In the two and a half years that I have been here I have experienced some of the most insane traffic I’ve ever seen with law enforcement that is straddling the border with nonexistent. In the past while driving I would have never conceived of passing a police car and I especially wouldn’t execute any sort of maneuver that involved quickly changing lanes or even cutting off the actual officer unless I wanted to be promptly served a ticket. Here one can see this sort of behavior on a regular basis without even a flicker from the officer’s lights. There’s no fear of reprisal, thus encouraging the dangerous habits of maniacal drivers. The police, who are tasked with keeping order and peace, have deemed it normal driving behavior. So what is to stop citizens from perpetuating the cycle of dangerous driving?
The role of police is something that struck me as so completely foreign from what I had grown used to in upstate New York where the mere sight of a police car, be it trooper or sheriff, would send fear through me that would break like a wave over my heart before surging its way down to the bottom of the stomach where it would lay heavy and cold. This is the feeling an innocent person driving at exactly the speed limit will find themselves suffering through when faced with law enforcement on the road. Their foot will instinctively tap the brake and every movement with the car will become a deliberate and controlled act.Â
I never thought I would see a day where I actually wished for stricter police enforcement of the roadways, but now every morning on my service bus to school I find myself praying that someone just do something about the guy swerving into the access road to gain position over another car or that someone would just call in the plate numbers of the numerous cars cutting through the gas station parking lot to skip out on the red light. I would just like to see something besides a severe accident be the thing that stops the overly aggressive driver in their tracks and that the regular enforcement of serious traffic violations would be the new “normal” for the roads in this great country.
I make my way back home and change my shirt and hang my coat away from clothes that it may contaminate with its odoriferousness. The negative norms that I had flashed through on my short walk slowly melt away as the positive paradigms began to take form. The fully stocked refrigerator with kilos of fresh fruit and vegetables that cost a fraction of what they would back state side. The rich ayran instead of milk, the emphasis on brewed tea over coffee and the word football meaning soccer, not vice versa. Sunsets over the Toros Mountains, December swims in the sea and thousands of years of history to be seen and discovered.Â
We can often times allow ourselves to dwell too much on those numerous negatives which life can choose to throw at us. Much like the smoke in the evening air, negative thoughts can leave a stench on your mind, body and soul while also limiting your ability to see the things that are right in front of you. It’s important to keep an inventory of both so that we can protect those that we care for and do something to change those that threaten them.
