Memoirous

Soooo I wake up again to the United States bombing another country. This is becoming a thing. Not something I want. There are so many thoughts rattling around my brain—I’m wracked with guilt for just being alive and living in this country, guilty of trying to ignore what Washington is doing. For many people it is more than a disruption—it is shifting the very course of their life. On Sunday, a day after the initial bombings, I attended a little boy’s birthday party, where I was the only non-Iranian person there. I’m not sure I can convey historically how this felt. I took my shoes off at the door and kissed my host. I clutched her and said, “Khamenei is dead.” First: She corrected my pronunciation of his name, then, shook her head: “This is not what I wanted.” I said, “Me, too! But I’m hearing that some Iranian-Americans are very happy. Glad that the US has stepped in.” My friend acknowledged this. Everyone has their own opinion. But, a war . . . More people will die.—My ...

Coolish mornings, hot hot afternoon, Waiting to see what happens Is like bombs falling from the sky No one knows. Is this how it’s always been— The Cuban Missile Crisis, Invading Iraq— Americans on the seat of their pants— Put down the remote and go outside. My mind swirls in a thousand directions, My body is at hyper-alert, All it takes is just one mistake— Hold on!! There’s a cardinal at the bird feeder! Sometimes I say to myself: I can’t take anymore, then . . . The youngest asks for bubbles and I find I can go on. After a rainy night, the peonies look like melted wax, piles of petals at the base of the bush, mounded, cascading, spilling all around. We’re not at war, yet.

Recently on PBS ln American Experience there has aired a two-part series on the taking of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and what became the American Hostage Crisis that lasted 444 days. Pretty much the course of American policy in Iran since then has been stuck. Very little has changed diplomatically. That period of time was the background for my novel Cloud of Witnesses about a boy growing up in rural poverty in southern Ohio. What, you may ask, has the Iranian Revolution got to do with Athens, Ohio. Well, I was a student then at Ohio University and there were many internationals on campus and from there I spun out a story about an unlikely friendship between 2 boys coming to terms with their own feelings of being an outsider. One was an exile within his own family and the other was truly learning that he wouldn’t be able to go back, that home was out of reach. I tend to start first with an idea and then flesh it out with story. Sort of like a philosophical challenge or...

This past weekend was Nowruz, the New Year according to the lunar calendar that Iran follows. In my book, Cloud of Witnesses , Hassan explains the idea of Nowruz to Roland who likens it to spring cleaning, a time to clear away the old and prepare for the new. “According to the Muslim calendar this is the time for the new year, No Ruz , spring when all things are made new again. It makes sense, doesn’t it?” “Yeah, I guess.” I knew better than to say interesting . Hassan took a colorful scarf out of his backpack and spread it on the ground. “We have a tradition,” he began. On top of the scarf he placed a hard-boiled egg. “Where we eat specific foods. The egg represents new life just as these do—” He plucked a couple of burs and catbriers off of his soccer shirt and placed them on the scarf. “Seeds.” Next from his bag he brought out a baggie of goldfish crackers. “Usually we use real goldfish, but these will have to do, and this is called a noghl ,” he said holding up a smal...

Khomeini waves to followers as he appears on the balcony of his headquarters in Tehran on February 2, 1979. February 1, 2019 marks the 40 th year of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran from exile. What does this mean to the rest of the world? Many leaders in the Middle East placated the West by calling for democracy and modernization—while at the same time maintaining a regime of suppression and human right abuse. Today we can point to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, colloquially known as MbS. In the 1970s America supported Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. In 1979 the Shah abdicated his throne and Ayatollah Khomeini helped establish the Islamic Republic. https://www.rferl.org/a/khomeini-tehran-iran/29739627.html So what does this have to do with Appalachia, with Cloud of Witnesses ? Though Cloud of Witnesses feels contemporary, it is a historical novel set 1979/1980. A sub-story in the novel has to do with a young ...