My Son Cries for Rain - Act for Sustainability Now!

Due to the semester break, we came to my hometown, Izmir, as a family, on Sunday. Thus, while I was relieving my mother's longing for grandchildren and children, whom I had not seen since the end of summer, I also made a change for myself by working remotely. 

Coming to Izmir is also a good opportunity to reminisce and meet friends. For this reason, I made a program on Tuesday evening with my ex-manager and my graduate friend in Karşıyaka, where I lived while I was in İzmir, and I took my son Okan after work and set off. My wife had already gone to Karşıyaka in the afternoon and met with her friend, and when I finished my work, father and son got into the car and got involved in the evening traffic. 

There was a lot of traffic on the Yeşildere road, and our radio was on. In the radio program we listened to, it was mentioned that we may encounter the problem of thirst and drought in the summer since there is almost no rain in the winter months and the probability of sufficient rain and snowfall in the coming days is low. Thereupon, I told Okan that we do not take diligent care of the world, and that in case of thirst, we will have difficulties in the summer. We talked about how the decrease in the availability of water, the source of life, will affect my life. Then the traffic started to flow, I concentrated on the road, there was silence for a while. Then, when one of Okan's favorite songs was played on the radio, I hung up on Okan, saying "you don't accompany me". He broke his silence by saying "I cried dad". 

Okan cried silently in the back seat, thinking that we are responsible for this situation with what happened to our world, what we did and did not do, and that we will all be punished for this responsibility in the coming period. Okan asked “What can we do now?” as he wiped his eyes with a napkin. I said, “we can take responsibility, protect nature, protect natural resources, set an example for our environment, and raise awareness.” After saying these things at first, I could not speak any more. The fact that a 9-year-old boy was upset and worried about these “big” issues was almost like directly hitting the wall for me. 

Then we parked the car in the parking lot of the shopping mall where we were going to meet with my wife and friends and got out of the car. While Okan was entering the mall with a used napkin in his hand, he saw the trash cans. One read "recyclable waste" and the other read "all other waste". “Can I dispose of the napkin in recyclable waste?” He said, “Of course,” I said, and after he threw, we moved on. 

As I was writing these lines the next day, I thought that even though it was late for yesterday, we still have things to do for today and tomorrow, and if we all do our part, we can leave a sustainable world for our children and grandchildren to live in. I am kicking off this day with this awareness, what about you? 

25/01/2023, Izmir, Turkiye