dear life 38

dear life,
Sitting in the airplane, high above in the skies, surrounded by the light and the clouds, i feel my life as a young iranian more cloudy than ever before. the results of the run-off elections were coming out as we boarded the plane, brining with them more and more thoughts and doubts. i am now questioning my loyalty to my nation, to the people whom today i see as strangers, whom i do not understand, whom i feel so far away from. i am questioning my struggles and my aims. do i know my people? do i know myself? do i know my world? do i know you? have i closed my eyes and ears to what have been going on around me? where do i stand among my people? have any of my dids proved worthy for my homeland? should i leave like so many others who did, either by force or by will? is it all about politics? have our minds become targets for politicians and their dirty games? please help me find the knowledge and strength to follow my meant-to-be path of life, to decide, and to keep hope. please save us all from all the malice surrounding us in the world.

dear life 37

dear life,
can i bother you with giving my love and regards to President Khatami? please tell him that i feel endebted to him for the political cultural insights i have gained throughout these past years. please let him know that no matter what people say today, there are many like myself who believe in his beleifs, who have fought and will continue to fight his fight, and who see the world through glasses similar to his. my experiences during the last two or three weeks of debates, disagreements, and presidential despair have urged me to talk to him throught you. please tell him that many like myself do not consider him a failure, that we love him and we will love him even more and miss him so much now that the one replacing him is in no ways comparable to him. please tell President Khatami: "thank you for all you did for me, for us, for our nation, for Iran." as he himself said once, history will decide. it sure will.

dear life 36

dear life,
i am leaving home for a one-month vacation in two days. i feel excited and happy, but at the same time i am worried for my nation is to choose its president for the next four years. the elections have gone to a run-off and the situation is really one of a kind with an unpredictable competition between a new hardliner face and a moderate molla whose previous office has brought too much trouble to this land. i just hope and pray for the best for my homeland, for my nation, and for myself.

dear life 35

dear life,
tomorrow my country is facing an important decision, a decision that will shape its destiny and history. tomorrow we are to select our new president, a president who is to respond to our needs and to bring us new horizons of unity, prosperity, and knowledge. during the recent weeks, whereever we went, whenever we met, with whomever we talked, we talked of the upcoming presidential election. the young campaigning in unique sometimes bizarre ways, candidates talking of ever-before tabooed issues, reporters and media traveling to the capital from all around the world, even a famous Hollywood figure showing face in the most relgious gathering of the country ... are events not to be forgotten easily. all will one day be history and the history will surely remember the enthusiam and vigor of the young, the contemplations of the old, and the hopes of the middle-aged. tomorrow we will decide, hoping that all will turn out for the best. tomorrow we will turn a highlighted page in our history book, taking an oath to continue to care for our land forever and ever and to work hand in hand to build its future, a future that we can boast to as much as to its past.

Dear life 34

dear life,
last night Iran's national football team won Bahrain 1-0 and was admitted as the second team to enter the world cup 2006. the victory brought a whole country, young and old, male and female, conservative and liberal, to a collective joy. a joy that kept cities and villages awake late into the night. a joy prompted by the unity and cooperation of a sports team led by a popular loveable leader continued into expressions of unity of people with different opinions and police forces. last night poeple held hands, blew their car horns, danced, and cheered. marching in the streets, they all cried, "Viva Iran!" viva Iran, we'll cry till the day we die.