To Do List

Exhibit A

I was overwhelmed with my responsibilities today. When after spending a few hours in the kitchen and around the house I sat down to see how much of my " To Do List" I had accomplished (Exhibit A), I was really disappointed at myself! I had promised to read things I didn’t read, and my writing just sits there beckoning me. Right now, all I want to do is to sit here, and do nothing! I also can’t shut off my mind. As I was doing my chores, I was listening to the radio on my computer. One station was really hard to take, as in the middle of news about wars and atrocities and devastations all over the world, they kept playing this fast-beat dance music. One was so boring, as they had these long silences filled with classical music, which wasn’t conducive to doing chores. The last station I listened to was broadcasting a report about Amir Kabir University students in prison, and how their families suspect that they are being mistreated and extensively tortured to confess, to what, I’m not sure. As I stood at the kitchen counter, motionless while holding a rag, thinking about this, I thought how spoilt and shallow it is to complain about radio programming and other things when at this very moment in this world, there are families worried crazy about their extraordinarily gifted children, who worked so hard to get into a top university, only to be handled like criminals and spies, denied basic human rights and access to legal advice and their families. Some days are just hard days to be a human being for the shame you feel about events that are taking place in your lifetime and you can’t do anything to stop or change them.