Merry Christmas!

My favorite American singer of all time, Bruce Springsteen sings "Santa Claus is Coming To Town," at a 2007 Paris concert with E Street Band.

It's Christmas Eve. My little house holds all that is near and dear to me in this world, my two sons and their friends, good music, and a lot of cheer and hope. My little broken record here would like to encourage you all to love your kin and lovers like there is no tomorrow. Kiss them, hug them, and tell them you love them as many times as you can. The best things in life are always the simplest ones. A few words, a good gaze, a warm embrace, and a little care are all free and simple gifts you can give each other. Go do it! Merry Christmas!

Christmas, Khatami, Ahmad, and I

My younger son helped me set up our Christmas tree again this year.

It feels like it was only yesterday when I wrote here about Christmases past in Tehran. Today I remembered another memory of my days in Tehran.

I remember the first Christmas Mohammad Khatami had been elected President. Iran was a rainbow of joy and hope, and Tehran was hosting the Organization of Islamic Countries’ Summit in December 1997. I left a meeting in downtown Tehran, hailed an orange taxi cab, and asked the cab driver whether he could spend an hour or two, taking me around Tehran to buy some things. He agreed. He was a middle-aged man who was dressed in what we would consider “laat-e-kolah-makhmali” attire. His coat was resting on his shoulders with his hands free from the sleeves. The back of his shoes had been pushed inside, and in his hands he sported a green rosary with which he was playing as he drove his Paykan. True to form, he also had a black felt hat on. He had kind eyes and a deep Tehrani accent, complete with lingo that was reminiscent of old Iranian movie characters.

I told him I needed to pick up a Christmas tree first. He took me to the Armenian neighborhood of Tehran just below Takht-e-Tavoos Avenue and helped me carry the tree and secure it in the trunk. On our way to my next destination, he and I started talking about politics. I told him I had watched President Khatami receive his foreign counterparts at the airport that morning. I told him how impressed I had been with him. He looked at me in the mirror and asked me what about the President had impressed me. I told him I didn’t really know. Maybe it was that he seemed to be speaking to the arriving leaders easily, in English? In German? In Arabic?, and that he was acting “stately,” something I hadn’t seen before. I told him also that even in his clergy outfit he seemed lithe and somehow contemporary, belonging to today. Maybe it was because he wasn’t wearing sandals, I guess.

The cab driver kept moving his rosary in his hands and looking at me in the rearview mirror. He asked me gently: “Really? You are obviously a woman who has seen more than life in Tehran. Do you really think that a president who can chit-chat in a language other than Farsi is impressive? Or one who wears regular shoes? Does that make him a good president?” He said: “I feel so sorry for my country. Who would have thought there would come a day when knowing a second language at conversational levels or wearing shoes would be considered impressive?” I was so embarrassed. The “laat-e-kolah-makhmali” cab driver didn’t look so laat anymore! I asked him his name and his background. He told me his name was Ahmad and that he had a master’s degree in political science from Tehran University. He had been a teacher before he had been dismissed because of his political beliefs. We talked a lot more about a lot of other things before I bid him goodbye, tree and turkey and fruits in hand. I learned a few important lessons about myself, about life, and about Iranian politics from him that day. Those lessons have only become bolder and more important with time.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Lights in Berkeley

Some people believe as Iranians and born Moslems, Christmas is not a celebration for us. I have known Iranian parents who tell their kids "We are not Christian, so we don't celebrate Christmas." I have even known of people who in that same vein, tell their very young children that there is no Santa Claus. That all seems so unnecessarily cruel to me, more so to the children, but also to the adults who think that way. I think in addition to Iranian customs and celebrations which are very important to our identity, there is no harm in taking other opportunities to celebrate. Especially those occasions which enable us to be a part of the community and nation which we now call our home.

I fell in love with Christmas the first year I came to US as astudent almost three decades ago. I loved the lights, the colors, the presents, and the good spirit people had around Christmas. Though even then I was aware that this is a Christian holiday in origin, I never felt excluded from the celebrations by virtue of my religion or nationality. Much talk goes around about how commercial Christmas has become. It doesn't feel commercial to me, as I celebrate it for the joy and happiness it brings me and my family.

When we moved to Tehran in 1992, finding a Christmas tree and a turkey became a fairly complicated annual task. In Tehran these days, you can find perfect Christmas trees and huge turkeys to celebrate Christmas. In the early 1990's however, I wasn't so lucky, so I had to do with what I could find.While we could find Christmas trees in the Armenian neighborhoods of Tehran, because Greek Orthodox Armenians celebrate Christmas a little later on January 1st, finding a tree a few weeks before December 25th wasn't always very easy. Some years I could find perfect trees, and some years I would find less than perfect ones which might be crooked or bald, threating to topple over (and topple they did a few times!).

The turkeys from those first years in Tehran were also a memorable story. That first year in Tehran, when I asked a relative to help me find a turkey for our Christmas dinner, he delivered a live turkey to my door! The next year, the same relative who had had to put up with my complaints for a whole year, delivered a turkey that had been shot in a hunt. The next year life did not improve that much, as the turkey I received, though not alive nor shot, had all its feathers on it intact, and I had to be the one to clean it before cooking it! Until you have had to do the deed, you won't know what a gruesome task this is!

In later years, turkey farms were developed and I could get a decent turkey in most butcher shops. My family would celebrate Christmas with tens of other friends and relatives each year. Santa would come, too, but would only deliver "surprise" small gifts, seldom things on a wish list.

I live in these parts again. My children are grown and have now come to appreciate Christmas for the chance to be with family. Three decades on, I still don't believe Christmas is an "overly commercial" event, or a "stressful time of year," as many suggest. I think it is a time to come together, celebrate, visit with family and friends, and contemplate peace. For me it continues to be a time to be happy and festive regardless of our religeous beliefs. No matter what our spiritual beliefs, we all know and appreciate and need peace, now more than ever. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and invite you all to join me in praying for, or wishing for, peace on earth. Merry Christmas To All!

Winding Down

My house has been slow to prepare for Christmas this year. We're getting there, though! I put up my sons' 18-year-old stockings today. Those stockings have traveled all over the world a few times now!

My sons and I stayed at the hotel where the wedding was. I went to bed very late last night and had to wake up very early this morning to go have coffee with someone before she left for the airport. All day I have felt tired and sleepy as a result. I tried to take a nap earlier this afternoon, but I couldn't fall asleep, as I'm not used to sleeping in the middle of the day. It appears that all of a sudden all the running around of the past few weeks has caught up with me. I feel like I'm in "super slow motion," where everything takes longer to comprehend, to respond, to lift, and to move! A good thing for this to happen at this time, too, as I am officially on the first day of a 4-day weekend, celebrating Christmas. I welcome the chance to do nothing for just a couple of days. I hope you are all enjoying your official first day of winter, and the upcoming holidays wherever you are. As for me, I am slooooowly getting ready to go visit my family for dinner tonight, and that makes me very happy.

As I slept in that hotel room with my sons last night, listening to them breathe and shuffle in their beds (something I hadn't done for a couple of years), I was thinking why counting the ways in which we are fortunate and prosperous becomes so difficult somedays. Sometimes, all we have to do to know just how good life is, is to close our eyes in the dark and listen.