Final days of Pandora’s Box

Editor:

Last weekend in our city I made a new friend who sadly I’m losing more chances to see almost as fast–Tuncay Esener–guardian of Pandora’s Box.

It was an accident, dropping into that stalled-narrow shop. Wouldn’t have taken time, had it been up to me and not my totally perceptive youngest sister; ourselves with unplanned free time, finding that Readers’ Books’ back patio, every-second Saturday ‘Open Mic’ was on hiatus. But how pleasant! Not in now-near-80 years had I had the pleasure of meeting a native-born Turkish person. And, how synchronistic the opportunity, the week of Ankara’s terror.

But this Pandora’s Box never lets loose of any foes of Humankind–quite the contrary. In that little shop diagonally across from Reader’s are treasures that fight for one’s attention—colored mosaic lamps; linens of intricate fine-silked weavings; jewelry one cannot imagine hands skillful enough to create; and other items from small handcrafted to large tiled plaques for interior wall or garden—all extraordinary designs, shapes, colors and patterns dating as far back as the Hittite Empire of Mesopotamia, and the Ottoman of Byzantium.

Mr. Esener’s personality is as unequaled as Pandora’s artisanry. He has a gracious countenance which reflects civility and family devotion; and the conversation he enjoys sharing can detail his region’s ancient history, its diverse peoples, and their forms of art.

You like me, resident in Sonoma’s Boyes Springs district, may make only maybe thrice-monthly trips to town for business, theater, or books (five years and I didn’t know Pandora’s Box existed even!) Yet if you do have extra time before October 25 ends, take a mini-trip to the other, ancient side of the art world via Pandora’s Box (and possibly, alsolike me, do some great early Christmas shopping at everything half-price.) Best of all is the chance for enlarging our understandings of globally regional cultures whose well-being ultimately attaches to our own.

Tosca Lenci, The Springs