Dear Friends
The perpetual optimist that I am rumoured to be learned some good lessons in 2008. Yes, bad things happen: Greed and grievances everywhere you look. Civilians pulveralized every day by bombs and guns meant for others. Poverty and disease still reign royally. Jobs are lost by the millions around the world.
We worry about our parents’ health and that of parents everywhere. And yes, age is catching up: If we haven’t started our Great Universal Novel by now, the probability that it will ever see the light of day is zilch.
Neither prince/princess charming, nor his/her dull distant cousin will eventually show up. We can’t run up the stairs anymore (I never could anyway).
But, as long as we are alive (and alas, many are not), and we still have a functioning mind and heart, and good friends to remind us of that, we can still live a worthy life: Simply absorb the meaning of the characters inscribed on the Tsukubai (water basin) behind the Rock Garden in at the Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto (photo above): “I learn to be content”.
These five words can be understood in different ways, but when I came across them in January, I realized that we, Iranians, got it all wrong when we followed the carpe diem philosophy of Khayyam, when he claimed, a wine cup in one hand and the tresses of his beloved in the other:
Chon aaghebate kaare jahaan nistist
Engaar ke nisti, cho hasti khosh baash
(a bit of homework for non Farsi speakers to go get the precise translation, but grosso modo: the ultimate end is void, so now that you are here, be happy).
The art is not to be “happy” (khosh boudan), but “content” (as in acceptance, humble satisfaction). This is it, folks, this is the life we inherited. You are what you are and you are not what you are not. Learn to live with it.
If we each did that, maybe the greed will stop, and grievances will diminish as a result too. Maybe peace within will translate in peace without. Maybe. Let’s try it for a year, and if it doesn’t work, then go back to that futile excercise called striving to be happy.
So, to all my friends all over the world, including in my adopted beloved lands of Iran, France, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, India and the US:
“Have a content 2009”.
My best wishes to you and your families
Shahrbanou
