Imagine This

You are swimming in an indoor thermal pool that smells vaguely of lavender. You dive through a tunnel into the open night. Steam is rising off the water. And falling on your head are snowflakes, so you are both warm and chilled. Your seal-son is bobbing next to you, looking up into the dark and describing how he is traveling in space among the stars. And because you are from SoCal, you keep thinking it’s not snow but ash falling from the sky. This is Anatolia—it both stings because it is harsh and melts you completely because it is beautiful.