Eat the Grapes, Don’t Fight the Battles

For centuries, Turkey has been a country of intrigue and mystery. Modern Turkey, too, is a country of paradoxes, both European and Asian, modern and traditional, secular and strongly Muslim. Yet one family discovers, in the midst of it all, there’s much to be treasured at the core of Turkey’s mystique. Eat the Grapes, Don’t Fight the Battles is a voyage of three family members as they move to Turkey for a two-year adventure.

After thirty-seven years of teaching, Craig Johnson takes an early retirement and searches for meaning in this new phase of his life. His only plans: to get away and experience something unusual. His wife is open to a new beginning, yet is unsure about leaving her home behind for unfamiliar lands. Johnson’s sixteen-year-old daughter, while enthusiastic about the idea of living abroad, can’t identify Turkey on a map.

In his touching, thoughtful, and humorous voice, Craig Johnson explores the journey of teaching youth in a Turkish school while overcoming culture shock, reconciling family dilemmas, and embracing the unpredictability of living thousands of miles from home. The cards stack up against this Minnesotan family as they strive to achieve normalcy in a world of challenges, but they learn in the end that cultural discovery can mend the fences of their own fears, biases, and vulnerabilities.

Like the sixteen-year-old daughter, I probably could not identify Turkey on a map. However, in working on this manuscript, I related to the family as they struggled to relate to other people who had many differences. Though this family traveled to another country, many of these challenges could occur by the family–or any family–transporting to an unfamiliar area within its own country.