I don’t know whether you’ve seen the film ‘Garden of Dreams’. For those who haven’t, let me briefly tell you about it: after his wife dies, a man buys a run-down zoo with his two children in order to make a fresh start. He has found his own adventure and does everything he can to put that zoo back in order…
First, I should say that it was a film that really moved me. It was the kind of film that gives you new perspectives on life when you watch it: holding on to life no matter what and never giving up… Even finding reasons to keep going! Starting over and embracing everything wholeheartedly once again! Truly believing, and feeling proud when you see that what you believe in can come true!
When was the last time you felt something like that? I mean, how long has it been since you truly believed in something, fought for it, and succeeded? When was the last time you savoured, as Orhan Veli put it, “the joy of doing a job” to the fullest…
Anyway, let’s get back to the subject… For some reason, while watching Garden of Dreams, I thought of our country… I realised once again that this is the garden of my dreams. With a heavy heart, in most of the scenes I thought about our beautiful country, which has always been badly governed… Our beautiful country… You know, the country most of us often want to leave, to get away from. Even though the garden the character dreamed of was in a bad state, he didn’t leave; he tried to put it right… Even when his money ran out, he stubbornly stayed and fought to make his dream garden a reality, right to the very end. He involved his children in the same struggle and motivated them in that direction. Because the garden he dreamed of wasn’t just for himself! As I watched the film, I witnessed this struggle and questioned myself: “What am I doing?” I mean, I live in such a beautiful country, and I thought long and hard about what I was doing to make it better. It would have been easy for me to escape that line of thought. I could have lamented my helplessness, saying, “What can I do?” Or I could have easily found inner peace by getting angry at someone, saying, “Oh, those politicians! Look what they’ve done to this beautiful country.” But this time, I couldn’t… I thought about what I do when I see piles of rubble or rubbish in the street. I asked myself what I do when I see stray animals in distress! I thought about the state of our shores and our cultural heritage, and this time I felt sorry for myself… I confronted the truth: “How can I have become so indifferent?” I realised that, while I ought to be doing something to make this country a garden of dreams, without tiring or giving up, despite all kinds of adverse conditions, I wasn’t doing anything—and neither were we—and I felt sorry for us…
Then I thought about our children.
Our children, growing up in a country where we have been unable to fulfil our own dreams…