The Walrus, the Carpenter and the Prisoners
The Walrus, The Carpenter and the Prisoners
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly,
I'm crying…
The above lines might be known to some and might haven’t been to some others. It depended on how closely you were related to the Beatles. When the pilot project of the Ministery of Justice which was at the Children’s Prison started two months ago, to be honest, I didnot have the lines above in mind. But they insipired me to write these lines below.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly,
I'm crying.
Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.
My profession taught me to be neutral. To be a mediator, I needed to be neutral. If I felt like I couldnot be, then I never accepted the mediation case. I always obeyed the rule of neutrality. This was the reason of my success and also the self-respect base of my being a mediator. I had the choice of choosing. My line was violance. I never accepted a case if there was violance in it. Funnily enough, the pilot project included me as a trainer, was for all the prison employees who were almost 140 people including the management and 79 prisoners aged between 13-18. Being part of that project, I was against my own rule. Additional, until that project, I always worked with conflict partners before they were sentenced. So either they were at the court or out of the court, but during the sessions neither of them was found guilty or at prison.
Before the start, I had a great curiosity in my mind about the run of the project . I knew and already accepted that anything could have happened!
Sitting in an english garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan
From standing in the english rain.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.
I remember the first day I flew to Ankara for the project. The sky we flew through was wonderfully colored. For a second I thought such colors could have never been my imagination, or could be? It was, with very soft and thin clouds, varying from bright yellow to orange and from blue to different tones of lilac, a great sunset. I thought how much I loved flying and wanted to fly my own plane. Flying was an endless freedom for me, like the dance of my thoughts in my mind: I could think of anything at any shape, color, sound and sense with any beginning or end yet what would have mattered? It was my own thought! I remembered a sentence from Rumi during that flight:
“Birds have wings, humans have desires to fly with.”
That time at the beginning of that journey, I had lots of self confidence but also questions in mind. There were many people very suspicious about this very first programme, some people were not believing at all what I was doing and many of them almost judged for the failure of the whole thing: Myself and the project.
Mister city policeman sitting,
Pretty little policemen in a row.
See how they fly like lucy in the sky, see how they run.
I'm crying, i'm crying…
Yet my confidence won on the plane and I felt myself like Alexander the Great in war. My point, as I always was neutral, wasnot the success or the failure of the project. My point was, to take the risk of being the first one, trying my best and seeing if there could ever be a sense in it. Of course there were some other aspects, too. To be first, in whatever I did as first, always gave me an enormous excitement. The feeling of “anything can happen” was one side of the adrenalin: Sort of challenge, having fun with life and with myself. But that as an idea of being the first, opening a new door, seeing then your way being followed, this was the “I have done it” feeling which didnot have a very humble level; it was pure proudness. Although I had to admit, mine was always a silent proudness as if I was watching a film playing. A film watching? You, liar!
The reality, though, hit my face at that very second when I entered the prison. The reality that time was so different than any other situation I have experienced and witnessed before. It was really far beyond my imagination.
Confidence, freedom, being first… And even Alexander the Great! Me proud lady, good words, very attractive! But that project was not a film to watch, I really had to act to get my pride!
At the end of the first two days, I found myself lying in salty water to get rid of my entire emotions. I thought for a while, that I couldnot be neutral in front of people who were sentenced because of rape, murder, stealing, drugs… They all had different tattoos, a specific scent, dirty nails. Some were with poor clothes, some with very new ones. Some tried to test my patience, some stayed almost as if he or I were absent. They werenot free; neither physically nor mentally. And most of them had lost eyes.
Eyes; for me the reflection of the soul and most of them had lost eyes!
I remembered that cold Ankara night while I was walking directionless when Stefano, a friend of mine, called to calm me down. Could I ever be neutral? On the other hand side, they were still children. Were not we all? Somewhere deep in our hearts, we all were that pure child we have forgotten and left alone long time ago. Those children were not free and they had lost eyes… These two points made my mind up. I decided to go on and finish the project that evening. After a while during the entire work, I started to enjoy what I was doing. I thought I might have deserved my pride at the end. But more than this, I liked the teenagers; they were quite fine; they were still children. Their crime, didnot change that fact. They obeyed the three rules I told at the beginning of the project all through the trainings:
They were free to attend the trainings or not attending. (But they all did attend)
They werenot allowed to talk when someone else spoke. (And they all were good listeners)
We didnot accept the words “I cannot do, I donot know, I am not capable, etc” in the training room. So everyone had to do his best. (And they all were succeeding)
I experienced tragedies, alternativeless lives, poorness, hopenessless, uselessness, violance, communicationless, emotions,- very deep love, hate, anger, fear, expressionless, silence, acceptance, fight, animal power… Many times I remembered what Rumi said about the three creatures of universe:
“ Angels; they are very high level, only praying and having goodness in them. Animals; they are only acting without thinking. Humans; they have both the goodness of Angels and thoughtlessness of Animals, but they have ability to think. A human being have the choice: Can be higher than an Angel or lower than an Animal.”
But then again, where was the line? Forget about the Angels and the Animals; but what made a good man good and a bad man bad? What if, Lennon didnot chose by mistake the Walrus symbolizing the bad politician but, but the Carpenter*, relatively a good guy, as lyrics to his song? What if, good was considered bad and bad was considered good? What if the seperation of human kind we experienced these days became deeper? What if not we but the other, became more and more the new phenomen of our lives? As soon as someone thought of good and bad; there started a judgement which lead to failure of human kind. Ironically we existed and understood only by the opposites.
And I was neutral during the project. Really. I never blamed, I never defended: I kept neutral. I didnot try to understand anyone. How could someone ever understand another one? If anyone ever told me, “I understand you,” that could have been a lie! This wasnot what a mediator did either, trying to understand others. No. A mediator just accepted the facts of others and let that be heard by each other.
And how could I ever understand a teenager when he, just after completing his sentence and within a week of freedom, for only 17 YTL, killed a girl of 20 years old?
How could I understand someone breaking the tiles of his cell floor to use it for tattooing on the arm of a new comer with an enjoyment of watching his pain and blood?
How could I understand someone breaking the table and two chairs on the head of another one, happy of the other one’s almost death body and very satisfied with what he had done?
How could I understand someone who said the prisoners needed beating on regular basis?
How could I understand prisoners not receiving enough water at the cells?
How could I understand that most of the teenagers had no place to go while outside prison and so to say forced to be within a group of gangs?
How could I understand accepting the fate, we might call, as a society? The fate of what; good and bad? How could a child forced for crime be in prison and not the one who forced him to do that crime?
Expert textpert choking smokers,
Don't you thing the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty,
See how they snied.
I'm crying.
I couldnot understand. I didnot even try to understand. I never was a liar to say any of them or any others that I understood human beings: I kept neutral. When a boy said how he raped, I kept neutral. When a guardian talked about his communication with a prisoner, I kept neutral. When the management informed me about the developments, I was neutral.
But I always had their lost eyes in my mind. Deep in me I still, while writing these lines, have them in my mind. One thing was very clear to me: I surely believed in what I have done during that project.
I knew that mediation during the court could save some lives of youngters if as a result, if possible, keeping them from the prison from their first ever crime on…
Once there in prison; as a new comer, being tested on many matters, someone could have developed deep emotions. Most of them did develop.
If more often in prison, then it was a life style. Most of them accepted it.
When someone had nothing to loose, then there was no reason to breath; he had no respect for neither self breath nor for the breath of others.
If someone didnot value something, it didnot matter what happened to that something: Because it had no meaning. To give a value, someone should win something. My teenagers, they never did win anything except fights. So they valued the fight.
If bad was increasing in a society, it definetely was the failure of the entire sytem: The Walrus won! That though, had to be considered as a whole in this Global Village of today.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly,
I'm crying…
Deniz Kite,
28th December 2006, Urbanitas/ Istanbul
*John Lennon, when he was asked the meaning of the Walrus, he referred it to Lewis Carroll’s poem of The Walrus and the Carpenter which was appeared and published in Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass, in December 1871.
“The Walrus and the Carpenter are the main characters in the poem, which is recited by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice. Walking upon a beach one night, the Walrus and Carpenter come upon some oysters, four of whom they invite to join them-- however, to the disapproval of the eldest oyster, many more follow them. After walking along the beach, the two titular characters get hungry and eat all of the oysters. Afterward, the Walrus regrets his actions and cries. After hearing the poem recited, Alice remarks to Tweedledee and Tweedledum that she "..liked the Walrus best", because "...he was a little sorry for the poor oysters". After Tweedledee points out that the Walrus shelfishly hid and ate more oysters behind a handkerchief, Alice changes her mind and decides that "They were both very unpleasant characters".
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly,
I'm crying…
The above lines might be known to some and might haven’t been to some others. It depended on how closely you were related to the Beatles. When the pilot project of the Ministery of Justice which was at the Children’s Prison started two months ago, to be honest, I didnot have the lines above in mind. But they insipired me to write these lines below.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly,
I'm crying.
Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.
My profession taught me to be neutral. To be a mediator, I needed to be neutral. If I felt like I couldnot be, then I never accepted the mediation case. I always obeyed the rule of neutrality. This was the reason of my success and also the self-respect base of my being a mediator. I had the choice of choosing. My line was violance. I never accepted a case if there was violance in it. Funnily enough, the pilot project included me as a trainer, was for all the prison employees who were almost 140 people including the management and 79 prisoners aged between 13-18. Being part of that project, I was against my own rule. Additional, until that project, I always worked with conflict partners before they were sentenced. So either they were at the court or out of the court, but during the sessions neither of them was found guilty or at prison.
Before the start, I had a great curiosity in my mind about the run of the project . I knew and already accepted that anything could have happened!
Sitting in an english garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan
From standing in the english rain.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.
I remember the first day I flew to Ankara for the project. The sky we flew through was wonderfully colored. For a second I thought such colors could have never been my imagination, or could be? It was, with very soft and thin clouds, varying from bright yellow to orange and from blue to different tones of lilac, a great sunset. I thought how much I loved flying and wanted to fly my own plane. Flying was an endless freedom for me, like the dance of my thoughts in my mind: I could think of anything at any shape, color, sound and sense with any beginning or end yet what would have mattered? It was my own thought! I remembered a sentence from Rumi during that flight:
“Birds have wings, humans have desires to fly with.”
That time at the beginning of that journey, I had lots of self confidence but also questions in mind. There were many people very suspicious about this very first programme, some people were not believing at all what I was doing and many of them almost judged for the failure of the whole thing: Myself and the project.
Mister city policeman sitting,
Pretty little policemen in a row.
See how they fly like lucy in the sky, see how they run.
I'm crying, i'm crying…
Yet my confidence won on the plane and I felt myself like Alexander the Great in war. My point, as I always was neutral, wasnot the success or the failure of the project. My point was, to take the risk of being the first one, trying my best and seeing if there could ever be a sense in it. Of course there were some other aspects, too. To be first, in whatever I did as first, always gave me an enormous excitement. The feeling of “anything can happen” was one side of the adrenalin: Sort of challenge, having fun with life and with myself. But that as an idea of being the first, opening a new door, seeing then your way being followed, this was the “I have done it” feeling which didnot have a very humble level; it was pure proudness. Although I had to admit, mine was always a silent proudness as if I was watching a film playing. A film watching? You, liar!
The reality, though, hit my face at that very second when I entered the prison. The reality that time was so different than any other situation I have experienced and witnessed before. It was really far beyond my imagination.
Confidence, freedom, being first… And even Alexander the Great! Me proud lady, good words, very attractive! But that project was not a film to watch, I really had to act to get my pride!
At the end of the first two days, I found myself lying in salty water to get rid of my entire emotions. I thought for a while, that I couldnot be neutral in front of people who were sentenced because of rape, murder, stealing, drugs… They all had different tattoos, a specific scent, dirty nails. Some were with poor clothes, some with very new ones. Some tried to test my patience, some stayed almost as if he or I were absent. They werenot free; neither physically nor mentally. And most of them had lost eyes.
Eyes; for me the reflection of the soul and most of them had lost eyes!
I remembered that cold Ankara night while I was walking directionless when Stefano, a friend of mine, called to calm me down. Could I ever be neutral? On the other hand side, they were still children. Were not we all? Somewhere deep in our hearts, we all were that pure child we have forgotten and left alone long time ago. Those children were not free and they had lost eyes… These two points made my mind up. I decided to go on and finish the project that evening. After a while during the entire work, I started to enjoy what I was doing. I thought I might have deserved my pride at the end. But more than this, I liked the teenagers; they were quite fine; they were still children. Their crime, didnot change that fact. They obeyed the three rules I told at the beginning of the project all through the trainings:
They were free to attend the trainings or not attending. (But they all did attend)
They werenot allowed to talk when someone else spoke. (And they all were good listeners)
We didnot accept the words “I cannot do, I donot know, I am not capable, etc” in the training room. So everyone had to do his best. (And they all were succeeding)
I experienced tragedies, alternativeless lives, poorness, hopenessless, uselessness, violance, communicationless, emotions,- very deep love, hate, anger, fear, expressionless, silence, acceptance, fight, animal power… Many times I remembered what Rumi said about the three creatures of universe:
“ Angels; they are very high level, only praying and having goodness in them. Animals; they are only acting without thinking. Humans; they have both the goodness of Angels and thoughtlessness of Animals, but they have ability to think. A human being have the choice: Can be higher than an Angel or lower than an Animal.”
But then again, where was the line? Forget about the Angels and the Animals; but what made a good man good and a bad man bad? What if, Lennon didnot chose by mistake the Walrus symbolizing the bad politician but, but the Carpenter*, relatively a good guy, as lyrics to his song? What if, good was considered bad and bad was considered good? What if the seperation of human kind we experienced these days became deeper? What if not we but the other, became more and more the new phenomen of our lives? As soon as someone thought of good and bad; there started a judgement which lead to failure of human kind. Ironically we existed and understood only by the opposites.
And I was neutral during the project. Really. I never blamed, I never defended: I kept neutral. I didnot try to understand anyone. How could someone ever understand another one? If anyone ever told me, “I understand you,” that could have been a lie! This wasnot what a mediator did either, trying to understand others. No. A mediator just accepted the facts of others and let that be heard by each other.
And how could I ever understand a teenager when he, just after completing his sentence and within a week of freedom, for only 17 YTL, killed a girl of 20 years old?
How could I understand someone breaking the tiles of his cell floor to use it for tattooing on the arm of a new comer with an enjoyment of watching his pain and blood?
How could I understand someone breaking the table and two chairs on the head of another one, happy of the other one’s almost death body and very satisfied with what he had done?
How could I understand someone who said the prisoners needed beating on regular basis?
How could I understand prisoners not receiving enough water at the cells?
How could I understand that most of the teenagers had no place to go while outside prison and so to say forced to be within a group of gangs?
How could I understand accepting the fate, we might call, as a society? The fate of what; good and bad? How could a child forced for crime be in prison and not the one who forced him to do that crime?
Expert textpert choking smokers,
Don't you thing the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty,
See how they snied.
I'm crying.
I couldnot understand. I didnot even try to understand. I never was a liar to say any of them or any others that I understood human beings: I kept neutral. When a boy said how he raped, I kept neutral. When a guardian talked about his communication with a prisoner, I kept neutral. When the management informed me about the developments, I was neutral.
But I always had their lost eyes in my mind. Deep in me I still, while writing these lines, have them in my mind. One thing was very clear to me: I surely believed in what I have done during that project.
I knew that mediation during the court could save some lives of youngters if as a result, if possible, keeping them from the prison from their first ever crime on…
Once there in prison; as a new comer, being tested on many matters, someone could have developed deep emotions. Most of them did develop.
If more often in prison, then it was a life style. Most of them accepted it.
When someone had nothing to loose, then there was no reason to breath; he had no respect for neither self breath nor for the breath of others.
If someone didnot value something, it didnot matter what happened to that something: Because it had no meaning. To give a value, someone should win something. My teenagers, they never did win anything except fights. So they valued the fight.
If bad was increasing in a society, it definetely was the failure of the entire sytem: The Walrus won! That though, had to be considered as a whole in this Global Village of today.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together,
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly,
I'm crying…
Deniz Kite,
28th December 2006, Urbanitas/ Istanbul
*John Lennon, when he was asked the meaning of the Walrus, he referred it to Lewis Carroll’s poem of The Walrus and the Carpenter which was appeared and published in Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass, in December 1871.
“The Walrus and the Carpenter are the main characters in the poem, which is recited by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice. Walking upon a beach one night, the Walrus and Carpenter come upon some oysters, four of whom they invite to join them-- however, to the disapproval of the eldest oyster, many more follow them. After walking along the beach, the two titular characters get hungry and eat all of the oysters. Afterward, the Walrus regrets his actions and cries. After hearing the poem recited, Alice remarks to Tweedledee and Tweedledum that she "..liked the Walrus best", because "...he was a little sorry for the poor oysters". After Tweedledee points out that the Walrus shelfishly hid and ate more oysters behind a handkerchief, Alice changes her mind and decides that "They were both very unpleasant characters".
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