 Starry night
I realized I am responsible, not
just the governments
By Yassaman Farmani
June 10, 2004
iranian.com unedited
as I
went through my pile of unread e-mails the title "The
city of angels" stood out amongst the subjects,
so naturally I checked the e-mail and sure enough it was a photo
essay, being an artist, I had to go check it out. even
though I was taking back by the description "Elam's
wedding", because I thought why would I care about Elam's
wedding, I don't know her.. anyway.. I'm sure you're
wondering why I'm e-mailing you, so I'll just cut the
story at this point and get to the point...
I was
inspired when I read that she is Jewish and he is
Muslim, and that they got married.. and from the
pictures I can tell it was a very beautiful and happy
event... words can not express the importance of this
event. the relationship between the Jewish and Muslim
Iranians has been on my mind since may.
in may, I heard the story of an Iranian who is half
Jewish half Muslim..and it was painful when I heard the
intolerance and judgments, he got from both sides, and
though, what happened to the Iran I knew as a child,
where all people were the same, religion never crossed
my mind except for Christmas, at which point a great
desire to be a Christian would overcome me, simply for
the beauty and excitement of a Christmas tree.
I had an epiphany, which was that peace between
Israel and Palestine starts with us, the Iranian community, us
not separating ourselves by our religion but rather
uniting ourselves because of culture and simply the
fact that we are all human beings, we all go through
the same thoughts and emotions, and pains, we are all
the same, the same soul existing in millions of bodies.
all this realizations happened in a education program
I'm in called Landmark education, which teaches me to
live a life I love an live it powerfully. so through my
learning I realized how one person can be the cause of
the transformation of the world.
so I made the commitment to transform the relationship
between all Jews and Muslims, starting with my own
community which I love so dearly. I am committed to
transforming our mediocre relationships into
unconditional love and unity, into a relationship that
will inspire the world, to forget the differences, and
remember that we are all family. one of my favorite
quotes is that "strangers are just family that we are
yet to meet." this education is what made me realize
that all humans can be extraordinary people not just
for their own day to day lives but for the life of
others. I realized the importance of unity and
responsibility. I realized that I am responsible, not
just the governments, or people who are in high power,
or people who live in the terror of it all. so my first step to fulfill on my commitment is
that I am planning a camping event, lasting something between
1-3 nights, depending on the support and the budget.
there will be powerful and inspiring speakers both from
the Muslim and the Jewish community. speeches from
inspired members of our community during the afternoon
which will lead into a night of dancing and pure fun
under the stars, hence the name of the event "starry
night." this event is yet in development, because I
have no intention in planning such event by myself,
this is a community event and the nature of it is to be
planned and put into production in a community, and
that brings me to my request of you and the Iranian
magazine.
I know that this request might be
unreasonable considering that you have not met me and
you might not be sure how strong my commitment is and
how serious I am about it, but I want you to see the
possibilities that this seemingly small event can bring
to the world, and I want you to see this event through
the eyes of the amazing and powerful person that you
are (I say this because of the extraordinary magazine
that you have developed and are responsible for),
rather than with Sinicism and skepticism.
 I request
that you sponsor this event and post an article about
it and/or tell your readers about it, this of course
when the plan is fully developed, for the development
of the plan I request that you join the "starry night" team
and I request that you ask others on your team to take part in
the development of this event. the
condition of our society and our world calls for our
action to be greater than the person that we think we
are and to step up to the plate of being a cause in the
matter of life, peace, happiness, and love not just in
our own lives, but in each other's lives, as a team, a
group, that is when life will not be about survival but
rather about joy and having fun, and getting what we
want out of it.
thank you so much for doing what you do,
with great love and respect,
.................... Say
goodbye to spam!
*
*
|
Starry night
