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Uygar Bulut - The Word for World is ForestÂ
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The Word for World is Forest*
The thing that the virus whispered into our ear with its sharp voice was simple and solid, âWe are together in thisâŚâ That tiny thing, which was invisible to the eye at first, is now big enough to make our eyes bleed. The earth is a human colonyâŚ
I guess having a virus holding up a mirror to humans of the Anthropogenic era, is such a strong irony that no one could have thought of this. Turning the earth, which is 5 billion years old, upside down in just a few thousand years. What kind of illusion made us think that everything was about us? Agricultural revolution? Enlightenment? I donât know when the enchantment started, but now we have to make some decisions before we face the virus again; Are we going to continue as the stone-cold statues of vanity that we are, believing that we created the virus, although weâve seen the endlessness of the universe? Or are we going to truly understand our humble part in the big picture finally? Will we continue to blame the virus for our misery or will we rather blame our dysfunctional relationship to nature, species and biologies? Was it really the virus which made the elderly die all alone in their homes? Or made paper collecting children rushed to earn a living as soon as the lockdownâs been lifted for their age range? Capitalism, the government, multinational corporations, why do they weigh less than the virus in our equation still?
Many questions have to be answered before our second showdown with âvirusâ begins and maybe an over-due apology is also to be offered⌠Every time the subject came around, my mother furiously asked, ââWhat did they want from a cave animal anyway?ââ It is unknown whether the whole thing started from there, but thatâs not important. Due to my mother having asthma, she has been under lockdown at home since the beginning of the pandemic, at my home. She was only visiting, then we decided to stay together when the lockdown started. We couldnât even fetch her clothes, thankfully my friendâs clothes were there to help. Being locked up is hard, all the more if you are locked up in someone elseâs houseâŚ
After two months we were finally able to go to the place she wanted to see the most, the forest. If we have to open up this problematic dichotomy, it is to say that my mother has always been closer to nature than sheâs been to culture. I have seen it every time I looked at her while she was gliding through nature; to me it seemed like she always lived there. I donât remember how many times I heard this sentence during her little escapes, âDo you know, Uygar, even as a child I have always been saying that neither the sea nor going on a trip or anything else was more magical to me, the one I love the most has always been the forest.ââ
*From Ursula K. Le Guinâs novel of the same name.
Š 2020 All images courtesy of Uygar Bulut
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