Marzieh Ghiasi

The real “Dead Poets Society”: For a country with an intricate history of beauty and tragedy that reads like an epic poem, it only makes sense those who have woven the fabric of Iranian identity, those most revered throughout history are its poets. Many people in Iran commit ancient poems to the heart, in home and in school, and not one, not two but hundreds of verses. So if you are sitting in a cab, walking through the streets, or whatever– you’ll often hear people humming familiar words, the verses of Hafez, Sa’adi, Ferdowsi, Molana (Rumi)… and each year thousands go each year to visit and pay their respects at their mausoleums, as I had the opportunity to do.

I decided to begin putting up some of the videos I’ve taken, and this is probably my favorite one– it has a nicer background music than I anything I could ever come up with. I hadn’t been to Hafezieh, the resting place of the Persian poet Hafez, since I was seven. The last time I was at the Hafezieh I was absolutely mesmerized. It was the single most beautiful place I’d ever seen. I was awed by it again, though surprised by how much smaller it was compared to what I remembered. Back then, I made two wishes on a coin which I threw in the fountain, one of which was that Hafez would invite me back when I had done something worthy in the world. This was always on my mind and after fifteen years, I figured that the wish must have been taken seriously… However, last summer I was at the Hafezieh again, perhaps by fluke. But the lesson had been learnt and this time I was careful to not make any conditional wishes.

I didn’t pay attention at all to the whole the late-night wars occurring over the past month, as it didn’t affect any shows I watch occasionally: Daily, Colbert, Mercer, 22 Minutes and Youtube for the rest of precious funny moments. But I saw Conan O’Brien’s final monologue on the Tonight Show and thought it was absolutely lovely. My favorite quote of this year… and it’s still January:

“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Honest, practical advice to not succumb to cynicism despite hard times. Nicely done.

Having written an ode to an age goneby I’d like to write one to an age coming. I am at a turning point, yet the future is filled with uncertainty. What is certain is successes and disappointments will ebb and flow. There will be wars, peace, new threats, new breakthroughs. My only wish as we enter this new decade is courage. Courage to climb new frontiers and hold strong against storms thrust on us. Courage to be patient, persist and believe even when the turning epochs do not move with our will. Courage to stand in solidarity, to stand for what is right.

Image Source: “Beyond Belief”, at the 2003 Burning Man Festival.

Ode

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o’erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

-Arthur O’Shaughnessy

Tonight we say goodbye to 2009 and the decade that it brings to an end. I was glued to the television ten years ago with sheer excitement as the millennial celebrations unfolded throughout the world. It had been just a week after my birthday, and I felt incredibly lucky to have been born at a time when I could witness the turning of the millennium… the 1500s are so passé. I started this decade in elementary school and ended it in university. It has been a decade filled with ups and downs. Personal failures and successes. Global failures and successes. It has been filled with hope and disappointment… and hope again.

I was raised in the decade when towers fell, when tyrants fell, when millions of innocents fell. I was raised in a decade of fewer wars than before, but even lesser peace. Axis of evil became the emblem, and we became familiar with allies, enemies, sanctions, and moral crusades. Us and them. Them and Us. Religions. Cultures. Languages. The Clash of Civilizations self-prophesized. Plain talking, simple talking. Dude, where are my WMDs? Reality is TV and we’re all stars. Vote each other off islands, houses, and the stage. But Keep watching. With SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, our lungs never caught a break. Mad Cow, West Nile, and Anthrax just in case you weren’t scared.

Earthquakes wiped out ancient mud cities, tsunamis wiped out modern steel cities, and hurricanes came and went from Y2K to 2012. Broken ice-sheets, broken promises, broken levees. Green bags, green protests, green earth. Poisoned rivers feed largest dam, and black gold feeds humanity as starvation abounds. It was a decade of threats and terror. Sixty years since the bomb, look north of the 38th parallel. Planes, subways, only bikes are safe now. And no carbon footprint.

But we connected. We forged friendships on walls, carved our aspirations on the screen. Mundane life or the greatest tweet ever. Status update: Will you accept my friend’s request please? The Roman forums became the digital platforms for dialogue between civilizations. Cell phone cameras became the eyes of the world jury, and our redemption. The world is watching your every move. Seriously? Seriously.

We changed our perspectives. We saw more than ever. The world at our fingertips, Gorillas in our Midst, planets in worlds far off, and the hobbits in humankind’s family tree. Stem cells created parts of us. Millionaires traversed space, and shuttles disintegrated while one lone mathematician solved the Poincaré Conjecture. When I was your age, Pluto was a planet… and the Hadron Collider investigated the essence of the universe. Before it had a Wardrobe Malfunction. Wiki stored our collective knowledge. The threads of our existence were unraveled and their codes became just one click away. Data, data, data. I’ve been Swallowed in the Sea, will you Lift me up? Ice from Mars for the iGeneration. Order from your nearest online retailer. Man from monkey? The debate rages on a hundred and fifty years later.

Millions voted in world’s biggest democracy. With solidarity, with courage, millions turned out against wars, for civil rights, in white, orange, green and all the colors of a rainbow. Funny men on TV made us think. Elections were won and lost, or in dispute, or recalled. Candidates assassinated. Men became presidents. Proud Cowboys and Humble Street Sweepers. They wore their faith on their sleeves. Epic Fail– You Betcha that’s What She Said. Recessions didn’t recede, but swept the globe. Watch the numbers fall, fall, fall. Dollars, schemes, prisons, and bail-outs.

We LOLed at cats, and shed tears when massacres took lives. Batons, Kalashnikovs, mines and bombs. White phosophorous gave a light blue shade to the heavens above, and tear gas burnt. We clash, we collide, and sometimes we headbutt. Run fast. You are Bolt. Keep running when they make you fall. You are gold. Black man became most powerful person in the world, and gave us all a change and a glimpse of hope, however transient.

I grew in the 2000s, and it was worthwhile. Google it.

What do you remember?