ADMIRER

I believe.........

Emily Dickinson (1830–86).  Complete Poems.  1924.

Part One: Life

VI

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin
        

Unto his (her) nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

Solh va Doosti (paz a vosotros)

Nadia

Reply to the two posts

Irooni, this article is really part of a series and I'd explained that it was Sept.  11 that opened me up to awareness of the so-called "Muslim world," as it did many Americans.  The reference to the canles in the song is about the candles lit in solidarity with US in Tehran that night.  They were the only Muslim country that did anythign like that.

I never said I wasn't Jewish, I write about that all the time, my family is Ashkenaz--Eastern European Jews. I said I wasn't a Zionist.

Maz: maybe I will blog it if you think I should.  I was actually thinking about making a blog called "Picnic"...I have all kinds of activites planned...the volleyball teams now have names, Shahparast and Akhoond Apologists and JJ's face is on the ball, etc. It would be a VERY different kind of blog...wouldn't it? 

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Good song (or poem), however ...

I'm trying to figure out how your early description of 9/11 (I am also from that area) and the Iraq war have anything to do with Iran. Just wanna make sure that everyone understands that Iran had nothing to do with 9/11, nor with the Iraq war. The US actually did Iran a big favor by attacking and invading Iraq. Again, just wanted to make sure you understand that. And no worries, I am not an IRI aganet nor an IRI supporter. By the way, I just remembered, I think in one post (about 2 months ago) you mentioned that you are not Jewish. Maybe I'm wrong. Again, good song.

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Mazzie

Thanks so much for your heartfelt and thoughtful post, and my sincere apologies for not replying sooner.  As you know, I had other things to deal with on this website and they were...very exhausting, actually...especially when this guy"Colon Cancer" started a big brawl, supposedly being on "my" side....well....whatever....Atafeh got to have her say so all things work out for the best...

I am not familiar with Paulo Coelho but I'll google him.  One thing I can tell you for sure is that he took his line from the ending of TS Eliot's "Wasteland", "by the waters of Lenman I sat and wept."  Eliot wrote that poem after the worst destruction humankind had ever seen, and WWI was supposed to be the War to End All Wars."  And instead they have gotten much, MUCH worse.  If you look at the history of the technology, you can see that it's all very "yang" (as in the "male" or positive part of the "polarity" in contrast to the "yin"), and that's what Stanley Kubrick tried to show both in 2001 A Space Oddysey and Dr. Strangelove.  Basically "Western" technology has been one big "dick" which now comes so close to annihilating us all that we really have NO choice and it doesn't really matter whether we're ready or not.  I think about the more recent film "The Matrix"--this virtual world the technology has led us to, in the way everything must engender its opposite (cf Hegel), is really a "soft" technology, it's yin, it's the Womb.  And we are in it.  And this technology will either provide the antidote to the destruction or its resolution.  In other words, either we're all going to blow up in one big "bang" of a bomb (and global warming, etc., UN predictions are DIRE) or we're going to MELT into ESHGH.  And I am ALWAYS hopeful, extremely hopeful, because pragmatically it is the only position worth holding. If one gives up hope, there is no other choice but to give up completely.  So yes, I think we've reached the critical mass because there's simply no other choice, and yes, I think the technology provides us the tools to take the next step, IF WE CHOOSE.  The conversation on this website, as one example, has been so extraordinarly transformed in the past few weeks that it only serves to affirm my hope.

I didn't intentionally omit Mary.  The Mother has ALWAYS been present, she is there in the poem I posted to you (and to JJ and by extension everyone else on this site) in the Songs of Solomon which predate her by FAR.  It is impossible to conceptualize that a man, above all a KING, wrote those words, and perhaps he did, perhaps he didn't, nonetheless Judaism, that MOST patriarchal of religions, attributes them to him.  So Mary, the Mother, never completely left us.  However there is a fundamental problem with what in Catholicism is known as "Marianism." Mary is the VIRGIN Mother.  She is truncated from the Earth, her source, she is "pure".  The Mother I speak of is no such Virgin.  She is a mother with a CUNT, and a BIG MOUTH, she not only BIRTHS but she FUCKS and she SCREAMS and she LIVES and she DIES....and when it is justified, her wrath knows no bounds.  In this incarnation, she is known, in some Eurasian traditions as 'The Terrible Mother."  But she only does so in the name of LIFE.

I have the same reservations about Mary's limitations  (to whose statues I have knelt and prayed and wept in the little cathedral-like church around the corner from me) as I have about Buddhism, especially in its Theravadic (South East Asian) and Zen/Chan (Japanese/Chinese/Korean) form (as opposed to the Tibetan which is melded with an ancient earth-based Shamanism).  And also with the non-Tantric yogic traditons of India.  This spiritualization into Nirvana, cleanliness, quietism, abstraction, excessive kindness, is itself MALE.  Remember, in the old yin/yang the polarity is (spirit/sky = yang, positive, body/earth = yin, negative.  "Westerners" are attracted to these highly abstracted versions of Buddhisms and Hinduisms to get away from the patriarchy of the Abrahamic tradition, but they really haven't thought it out clearly.  They fall into a "quietistic" version of the exact same thing.  These Nirvana-seeking traditions are essentially patriarchal.

As far as I'm concerned, there is more Mother in Khayam than in any of these.  I hope I'm making sense. 

Catfights are a problem.  In fact, I've been more ruthlessly attacked and ridiculed by women on this site than by men.  When men attack me and ridicule me and I fight them fair and square, they always offer some kind of compromise.  The women (not to say ALL women attack me, of course they don't, but just the WORST have been women) won't budge.  They hate and ridicule me in a way that the men simply don't.  Women DON'T FIGHT FAIR.  They use their status as the "oppressed" to one-up the so-called "oppressors" and they're VERY good at it...they're wiley.  Their favorite tactic is to slay you with "niceness." They provoke and provoke soooooo politely and then you say "What the f-" and they say, "Rosie. you're sooo impolite and I'm sooo  good..." So I don't expect the Mother, the return fo WOMEN,  to come exclusively FROM WOMEN; men and women both who are READY will reclaim this voice.  You're one of them...see? 

Karl Marx was a brilliant luminary but his vision is at best partial.  It isn't ALL economics, it's about FREEDOM.  A person has to stop being afraid.  I've said before and I'll say again that the ONLY THING that matters is for a human being to ALWAYS be willing to speak the TRUTH, and to ALWAYS put truth before ideology and self-interest.  So a "leftist" like me who engages in ANY trivializaton or apologism of crimes against humanity in support of a non-colonial regime betrays the victims, corrodes the ideology, and betrays and corrodes himself.  Truth is truth.  We all know what is right and wrong, deep inside.  Marx is fine, Molanaa is fine, many voices have spoken many fine partial truths.  But at the end of the day there is only one truth--one must speak out for injustice whenever one sees it, regardless of the short-term consequences.  And that was the essential problem with Marx (as implemented by Lenin and Trotsky)...the end was supposed to justify the means. This cannot be.  The means IS the end.  Czar Nicholas and his family should not have been executed.  The Russian Revolution was doomed from that very day.

As for Khomeini, the man was thoroughly medieval and has nothing relevant whatsoever to say for the brave new world, except that Third World countries MUST find their own way.  Other than that one thing, his way was completely wrong.

As for your employer, he and I have reached a very amicable understanding so I think you can speak freely about him to me on this website, as he and I have finally been able to do with each other.  Or don't speak.  As you choose.  It isn't really all that important.  I don't really give a damn about Javidi's "zendaani-ye-azaadi" as his personal ideology; I'm ONLY concerned about this website as a CONSCIOUS, COHESIVE  agent of CHANGE with a VISION and a PURPOSE.  He does his best, and he's letting me do my best now, and that is fine by me.

Let me know your thoughts and responses.  I'll definitely try to get back to you sooner than I just did.  Thank you so much for EVERYTHING.  Don't worry about Nefrat anymore.  He is in the employ of Maz now, and that is all you need.

Robin

To Rosie T.: return of women

I have two main questions, and some more questions inside the main questions, about the following: “It is the return of the Mother, of Gaia, Earth, it is the return of women. And freedom will only sing its song when men are not shackled by words that are weapons and women reclaim their true voice.”

1-Is this “mother” and “women” stuff has anything to do with Paulo Coelho’s “By the River Piedra I sat down and wept”?  I don't have the English translation of it now, and I don't care to borrow it from the library, but I dug out the Farsi translation of the book yesterday, which is a crime to the art of translation, especially when all the sex scenes are omitted because of the censorship in Iran.  I couldn’t figure out the heads or tails of it.  But if it is related then you have forgotten, or deliberately omitted to mention Mother Mary.  Am I correct or way off key?

So, I want to know, are we anywhere near that critical mass of mental mutation to accept the notion of woman’s rightfull role in the society?  And if so, what about that issue women have from time to time with…, you know what I mean…, well there is no other way to say it but to jump in and just say.  Here it is, what about catfights?

2- How would this idea fit with Carl Marx’s Explanation of Problems, because according to him all evil stem from money (economy), not men or women?  And also according to Khomeini’s Manifesto women are, well how can I say it, OK well they are deranged (his idea, not mine).  So, is this a deranged idea?

For the rest of the article, my employer does not want me to make comment on.

Thank you professor

I am your devoted pupil and flirter

To pierce the ears, to pierce the heart...

Thank you all for the kind words you've posted here, especially Jahanshah Rashidian.  Your words moved me to the core.  And in order for the ears to be pierced, the heart too must be pierced.

I don't make distinctions between non-ideological atheists and truly spiritual people.  Since all religons are ideologies and all ideologies religions, these two walk the same road.  They must abandon all belief systems to find the one Truth.  And the one Truth is that there is no one truth.  It is a lonely, painful and yet very rewarding road because it leads to great compassion and commitment to others' truths, and thus to  humanity, and in such an environment, there can be no war.

And so all I have tried to do on this website is to caution against the excesses of any belief system, including those politically close to my own.  And this process, because my own personal history with Iranians has been so painful and because Iranians are in so much pain, has constantly pierced my heart..  So if I pierce your ears, I assure you that I too am pierced.

I want to state once again that I don't write my poetry, it writes me, and I didn't choose this journey, it chose me. And more than even my soul went into the writing of this article.   This soul of our entire evolution through five thousand years of patriarchal civilization whose fruit and symbol is the atomic bomb went into this article. And the second coming IS coming and we must choose, it is the return of the Mother, of Gaia, Earth, it is the return of women. And feedom will only sing its song when men are not shackled by words that are weapons and women reclaim their true voice.

And "they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."  Isaiah spoke in the name of Cyrus, whom he called a "hidden treasure., I speak for Isaiah and for Cyrus and Molanaa, but most of all I speak for the Mother, the mother that is waiting in all of us to give birth to a new world.  She is ready; we must choose.

And so I really don't understand why this article for three days thas been off the home page, the TOP article on the second page of this website so that over the weekend when ordinary readers have more time to visit, it hasn't been seen much. This pierces my heart and fills me with sorrow and also anger. In my opinion, the photo essay on "Fun" in Disney World, asone example,  could have waited a couple more days.

 I understand the publisher's commitment to free speech and equality but the belief in ABSOLUTE freedom  and equality is quite simply an ideology. And a dangerous one, because it is the Great Leveler, and in anarchy true truth-seeking, that is, true freedom-loving voices, cannot be heard. In my opinion Isaiah, and Cyrus and the Mother and the readers of this website and I, I too, deserved better than this. .

This website belongs to all Iranians and hence to all humans for the contribution of Iran to the formation of "Western" civilization, though long suppressed, is inestimable. Every European is an Iranian, and every person on the planet is now a participant in a global process begun in the "West." And so this website belongs to the world. And the world, will never be free until the "West" honors and embraces the true history of her Persia Within.

But this website also belongs to one man.  He's a good man, a very good man, but he doesn't know how to be a great man yet because he is too attached to the ideology of absolute freedom. And yet this website also belongs to its dedicated core community of bloggers, who owe everything to this man.  And so I ask you, if you so choose, to help him help you find and articulate your Truth.  It cannot and will not happen in anarchy. Much progress has been made in improving the structure and focus of this website in the past few weeks.  But if I have truly pierced your ears, then I think you will agree that Disneyworld could've waited, and lots more needs to be done to forge this website as an agent of truth and change in Iran and in the world. That is all I wanted to say.

As for my more devoted detractors, don't even bother, I'll say it all for you:  I am a desperate, bored,, sexually frustrated, highly barbituated, unbalanced, pretentious, pathetic  perimenopausal  woman, a secret agent of various clandestine organizations, and my writing is clearly no better than your own. There. Done. You don't have to say a word.

PS I should state that if the situation with this article existed in isolation, I would not have bothered to write this long post.

Now

There is much truth in Neiku's post.  I am starting to think that the solution to the whole problem lies in the photo essay on organic gardening.  Iranians should GARDEN, they should work on SOLAR PANELS, they should make music and fashion and pottery, they should organize grass-roots run day care and yoga centers and bicycle tours and senior centers and they should send it out, photos, recordings, articles, all over the world, this is what we're DOING NOW on a community level, socially, artistically.  This is WHO WE ARE.  Things that can't be censored, things that the regime can't have an excuse to stop.  A world-wide media FLOOD of NOW!. 

At the same time I have to stress: history is sacred.  And quote again, as I have before, the beginning of the Argentine filmmaker Maria Luisa Bemberger's "The Official Story" on the "desparecidos" of the US-backed dictatorship of the 70's: 

History is the memory of the people.

And without memory, humans are little different from cows.

And especially in a place like Iran, with the great ruins of Shush and Takhteh-Jamshid, the fire temple of Yazd, the buildings of Isfahan, the carvings of Bisotun, the ancestral villages, the age-old desert...

NOW must also embrace THEN.

Live for now!

I feel it's important to note that "history" is "history" it's now behind us. In order for us to reach "enlightenment" and "evolve" as human beings we need to let go of the "pains" of our past which have accomplished one thing "enslavement" of the mind. The beauty is "now" it lies within the "present". If we focus our energies elsewhere we will continue to be lost, as the past is gone and in order to create a future of "picturesque" moments we need to focus our energy on creating "picturesque" moments in the now so we can look back and see a series of "picturesque" moments. 

If we could all come together and focus our energies on creating according to our true intentions in the "now" we would see a "major" change in the world. All we need to do is let go of the past as it no longer matters. Begin to realize all that matters is "now". 

Imagine a "new" world where we all exist right now, where we've let go of the past as our only concern is this moment now. We would reach our ultimate potential, to only look back at a series of "moments" that would leave us breathless. 

Come on people let go of the ignorance which has continued to hold us in bondage, live for now!  

maaaaan... there's a whole

maaaaan... there's a whole world out there...... LIVE and LET LIVE!

Okay, okay...

Alright, Mazzie, you gorgeous hunk of cybermanhood, you...I AM the perimenopausal siren of the website-joon. Spurn me! I'm yours!
PS Sorry folks. I PROMISE I'll reply to the SERIOUS comments soon. This is a VERY serious piece I wrote and THIS MAN is trying to destroy me...."khareji" ladies: beware the Persian Male.

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Great Song!

Thanks Rosie! You definitely have a great heart!

Understood, Maz...

I'll take my courtship rituals elsewhere, to one of the OTHER people I quipped I flirt with when accused of being a "shameless harpie".  Let's see..I'll begin with Colonel Hemayat, he sounds more promising...

MAZ DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE MAN IS 78 YEARS OLD????  I WAS MAKING A JOKE!

Sigh....mardhaaye-iraani...jaan-e-gol, sar-e-sang.

Mazloom Ast and Rosie T. .............:o)

 You all are amusing but sweet. Maz it looks like your collection of four permanent women friend  has begun. :o)

Nadia

Then it's understood:

Then it's understood:

flirting ---> good

matching ---> no good

Finally a picture.............:o)

 Finally a picture of you. So glad to see it is finally up. I shall drink a Dulce de Leche latte in celebration. Maybe have a strawberry cheese cake New York style to go with it.

Nadia

I didn't say you were a good match for me, Mazloom!

I just said I was flirting with you...   ;D  So now that we have that cleared up, I shall continue to flirt and you may continue to rebuff me.

Many thanks for everyone's comments.  More to come from me on this thread soon....
Robin

National Anthem of Iranian.com

WOW, I think your song should be the National Anthem of Iranian.com. Do you have a recording of it on MP3 that you could post? If not, can someone record it with a guitar playing in the background? Can Kiosk do it? JJ, you have connections, can you see to it? I myself am as artistic as a doorknob otherwise I would do it myself.

Rosie, thank you for flirting with me, but I am not a good match for you. You are a walking encyclopedia, but I, on the other hand, am so dumb that I still get confused sometimes when I see a PUSH or PULL sign on an exit door.

Do you know who would be a good match for you? Jahanshah Rashidian. He is also a walking encyclopedia about your age and both of you love Iran equaly. What could be a better match! But, I don't know it he is married or not. Check it out. Ask him if he can dance.

Take care,

Anonymousa

Mr. Hezbollahi, islamic republic needs you. They have a lot of little rosies in evin that need you to shut-up and get-lost them (I'm sure you know how islamic republic shut-up and get-lost people). Then they have a lot of young rosies in schools and universities there that show their beautiful yet sinful hair, which bring lust to our innocent boys via their aphrodisiac hair rays (according to your ex-president banisadr). These girls need to be shut-upped and get-lost too. So rush to iran and don't let your expertise get wasted around here.

Re: Rosie

Thanks for the poem. I liked this one a lot. I am amazed that a none-Iranian can speak the heart and feelings of an Iranian so well and so gracefully.

Re: Anonymousa

Look who is talking! If there is someone in need of a prozac, it seems that it is you! I say this because of your display of uncontrolable rage. I had a bad day and so I want to have some fun with you Anonymousa... So here we go...

You say that "I for one am sick of seeing your ugly name on everything..." Shall we dissect this sentence anonymousa? Of course we shall!

First you say "I for one...", yes you got it! You are just for "one"! The "only" one, I may add!

Second, "... am sick of..."   Sick of...? Correction: You are sick, period! No need to continue the sentence!

Third, "... seeing your ugly name..." Awwww! How could you say that Anonymousa? Now let's be fair which is uglier? "Rosie" or "Anonymousa"?? LOL! This is so fun!

Fourth, "... on everything". My god! You must be even having reccuring nightmares too on this issue! Share them with us!

"biased condescending remarks...." ??? Where did you learn such big words anonymousa? It's not like you to use complicated words!

What a jealous insecure imbecile...

The Iran-Iraq War Weteran who lost his middle limb while

having sex with a female donkey during Iran-Iraq war. It's not nice to to address people with that kind of belligerence and animosity. Rosie T is here to be part of us. We welcome her with an open arms.

Hey Anonymousa

You seem to be talking on behalf of others, married men, in particular, who have no brain to make their own choices. Are you in charge of "amre bemarouf" or "nahee az monkar" in I.R. ministry of Ershaad? What are you doing here in america. You should be in Islamic Republic as a mulla, whose only ability is talking on others' behalf. Or are you part of the crowd who want to control everything and everyone because they are always right. And I bounce evrey future insult coming from you back to you, albeit amplified by 100. I have a good hi-fi amplifier and a mirror you should know.

Totally Agree with Teach........

 This website is all about freedom of speech that has been denied in Iran. If someone does not like a particular writer then they have the right to not read the articles/blogs by not accessing it. They have the control over their little mouse and can refuse to click on it. They also have the right to pass over any comments by a particular individual by simply not reading them. Now, that is what I call freedom. :o)

Best wishes to you dear Robin. More power to you! :o)

Nadia

Anonymousa you don't make sense

Anonymousa, why this animosity? If you don't like what she says, don't read it. If you don't agree with her, express your rationale, and reason with her. There is so much other "trash" on this site and others that can occupy your time. We iranians have been hearing "shut-up" for the past 30+ years, isn't that enough. Now you are applying the same tactic towards someone that you really do not know, does not mean any harm, and only shows interest in iran. Is that what you envision for iran? You are way out of line; and if you respond by continued vulgarity, it only diminishes your credibility, not anybody else's. Maybe there are other people on this site that like to hear from more distanced observers, besides the endless arrays of vulgar self-proclaimed opinionated experts and writers, like yourself, on this site.

THE PEOPLE FELT CALLED TO BUILD A BLAACK WALL!!!

BLACK wall, not GREAT wall, this is not China!!

I TOLD that pasdar IRI/British agent weasel TWICE to change it to BLACK wall!  Javidi-joon, you REALLY need that kotak in your hezbolaahi koon that anonymous43829385 said you do!  :o))))

Robin  PS To Anonymousa:  The ONLY men I flirt with on this site are JJ, Mazloom, and Colonel Hemayat.

please take the trash out

I thought we were going to be rid of this idiot for a while, why is she back staining this website with her GARBAGE??Give us a freaking break from your nonsensical babbling. Take some prozac or something to calm the hyperactivity and stop your endless jabbering & your rambling, moronic comments on EVERY single article on this site! I for one am sick of seeing your ugly name on everything! It should be changed from the "Iranian" to the "Rosie T personal opinionated menopausal" site. Get lost! Give some other people who actually know what they are talking about a chance to write! Thats what we sign on here to read not your crappy attempts at writing , your biased condescending remarks and your flirting with every man on this site, some of these guys are married with families, get some shame, You Harpie!

A voice for new Heroes

Thank you Rosie! You just sound to be a part of us. You feel the pain we have and regret the freedom we lack. Be sure, your voice pierce our ears. Your whispers can be heard by true lovers of Iran. This is a voice for new heroes.