Archive - Dec 7, 2010 - Article

Siege Mentality

Yet even a paranoid can have real enemies - and delights in conjuring more from its delusions. Three decades of sanctions and suspicion from the west have nurtured revolutionary Iran’s sense of siege. The regime uses every particle of hostility to blame any domestic problem or upheaval on foreign powers, the United States and Britain above all. It is skilled too in sustaining the alarmist message that internal enemies are in the pay of or serving the interests of these nefarious outsiders>>>

How many of you celebrated Chanukah?

Living in Highland Park, Illinois for over twenty years, and mingling among its 90% Jewish population, I should have known better than to expect my second grader to be happy with one night of Christmas. But since Christmas and Chanukah often came around the same time, none of us had paid attention. Then came a year such as this, when the two events were weeks apart and on a Monday, when I picked up my son from school, I noticed a new gloom in his attitude>>>

مسواکتو می دی من؟

چی؟ از سر کار بیام پیشت؟ باشه میام ولی اگه از سر کار بیام، خسته و کر و کثیفم. اگه بخوام دوش بگیرم حوله ات رو می دی بهم؟ یه چیز دیگه، با من میای حموم، پشتمو لیف بزنی؟ اصلاً با هم حموم کنیم با هم زیر دوش جیش کنیم. میگم که، اگه یه چیزی ازت بخوام گوش می دی؟ چیز عجیبی ازت نمی خوام ولی تورو خدا نه نگو. می گم دودولتو بده من باهاش جیش کنم. یعنی من بگیرمش تو جیش کنی. پسر چه باحال می شه>>>

A Genius of Happiness

It was ridiculous. That was the only way to think about it. Or absurd. It was best to move carefully around it. The only way we could make sense of that love was to treat it like something very fragile. We found our home among the most fragile places in the world. That was where we saw how strong it was, because their fragility would not be anything new. I already know what that is, we would think. I already know what that kindheartedness is, we would think when we saw the Vietnamese janitor at my sister's school who liked seeing us whenever I went to walk her home>>>

یادها-3

تبعید خاطرات را ویران میکند-
با عدم تکرارشان در دیدار و گفتار؛
نبود نزدیکان، دوری محیط آشنا
متروکی بازگویی آنها.
گورستان حافظه شهر است؛
>>>

Love won't tear us apart

I suppose,
in this climate of fear
and uncertainty,
about money, work
or even a whole country
>>>