 Miles away and so close
My love for Persian culture grows -- in Canada
By David Goodman
August 12, 2003
The Iranian
Ottawa, Canada -- The fares can be excruciatingly
expensive, the visas and red tape, phenomenal and the
family barriers and disapproval of friends can put off the heartiest
traveler from making it to
Iran. However, when it is affordable and within ones means it can
be done. Such an
adventure will stay in your memory forever.
Since my trip, I often
think of things in my home country in how it relates to Iran and
the
Middle East. While Iran is not the only place I've spent
considerable time in, it is the one
that I refer to the most. However living hours away in a completely
opposite paradigm (the
very cold, very wet and very Western Canada), I have never had
problems finding an outlet
to Iranian culture and hospitality. If anything, one does not have
to leave Canada to
experience Iran.
For instance, while at University in a more remote
area of my country in a Maritime town, I
met a handful of young men and women from Iran. For myself, it
was difficult to come from
living in worldly cities and traveling around bustling places like
Tehran, to a small and very
white town far away from what many of us would call civilization
in eastern Canada.
However it was my Persian friends in this small, small place and
their food, music and
stories which made it easier to have a link to the times I had.
Most Canadians don't want
to hear stories of the desert or what they consider to be non-exotic
places. Most
Maritimes don't relate to being thrown far away from home
in a completely foreign
situation, their trek to a University is big enough for them.
It was my friendships with my Iranian friends and
being immersed in their own problems
living so far from home that helped me realize how trivial my
issues where. They helped me
see the benefits of a small town (even in the excruciating cold)
and helped me cope with
the awful slop the locals would pass for food. More importantly,
I had a chance to see the
real Iran in my own country, for what Iran can really be. And
finaly through them, I had
come to fall in love with the Maritimes, for what it was.
One friend, a young man from Tehran, was jolly and
insatiable in his energy and creative
insults. I remember trying to find him a cheap flight home, as
there are many creative
routings, and with the commitment to overland a little, endure
stopovers and by tickets in
different places in advance, sometimes heading to Iran can actually
cost thousands less.
Only, in trying so hard to help him, did I realize that only
a Canadian/Brit could travel in
such a way. His passport was a deterrent from heading through
America, he felt reluctant
to buy so may tickets and his family could not bear waiting an
extra few days to see him.
Through him I had come to recognize how lucky I was as a Westerner
to have total
freedom of movement.
Another friend of mine, who had more time to adapt
to Canadian culture, endured far more
problems than I could possibly imagine. The decisions she had
made within her final years
at school had placed her in a world that I would never have been
able to cope with.
Family, rejecting her choices, friends unable to understand the
situation and people
resisting her attempts to live a more Canadian style life, were
moments for which I could
only stand back and watch. I had no way to relate and nothing
to say. These were cultural
differences which I could not understand. Ones which I had never
seen while in Iran.
Flying across the ocean, miles away from home, an
aspiring student holding the hopes of
his family studies in the footsteps of his father to be an engineer.
However so far from his
friends and family, he did not hold the same gleaming joy for life
in the West as his parents
did. Life in Canada isn't always the wonderland immigrants
believe it will be.
Living in the lap
of luxury can be both empty and sometimes lonely. It's a
forum to question oneself and
their spirituality. While it is an amazing opportunity and usually
fun and rewarding for many,
it is certainly not for everyone. However, how does one explain
to their parents that they
are not happy in this new so called country of opportunity when
they know their parents
would have done anything to be there themselves? How can you
tell your parents you are
ungrateful?
In my time, I grew to love what the Maritimes could
offer. I enjoyed the surrounding
countryside; the slow pace of life, the inexpensive entertainment
and even the weather all
became enjoyable. However I would not have been able to come out
of my own silly box
of self-pity if it wasn't for my friends. Realizing that
I did not endure the racist policies of
the Canadian and American governments, did not have to live up
to my parents dream nor
ask for their approval in my life's decisions helped me look
past my situation and enjoy
school.
More importantly this was a window into Iranian
culture. These issues and problems were
not ones I could see while traveling in Iran. In a short period
of time one doesn't get to see
how intimate families are nor how important ones parents opinions
can be in the course of
their lives. When only breezing through Persian cities, one doesn't
immediately see the
exceptional love and hope they put in their children. While being
the sole Westerner in a
Persian town being pampered with friendship and hospitality, it
is hard to imagine that
Iranians could be treated so coldly by officials and administration
in small town Canada.
However, I will never forget drinking Persian tea,
eating Persian food and smoking ghalioun during
the warm summers miles from Iran. It is difficult to explain how
much my
understanding of Iran changed while I was in my home country.
It certainly is not a
detriment to my love for Persian culture.
I know I will never
truly understand the Iranian
way, as hard as I try. Throughout my friends troubles, all
I could do was sit back and
listen, there is little help a Westerner can offer. However,
my love for Persian culture grows
and I yearn to see more of it, only next time, on Persian soil.
Maybe then, while visiting my
Persian university friends in their home town, will they get
a chance to understand my way
of life as well.
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Miles away and so close
