(20/54) “Dr. Ameli helped me open a party office. He was an established man by then. But he took the time to come to Nahavand, and I’ll never forget the speech that he gave. He said: ‘Now it is winter, the rivers are frozen, the trees are all dead. But soon green sprouts will bur … | Continue reading
(19/54) “It has always been my philosophy: wherever I am, I try to make the most of the responsibilities I am given. Managing a factory was not my ideal position. I had hoped to find a place where I could have more of a national impact. But I tried my best to improve the lives of … | Continue reading
(18/54) “The king threw a celebration on the 2500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy. It was the largest gathering of world leaders in history. He constructed a city of tents around the ruins of Persepolis, where Cyrus’s grandson Xerxes ruled the ancient world. 1500 cypress tr … | Continue reading
(17/54) “We still took long walks together. Mitra hated walking through deep forests, they were too dark. She’d imagine that predators were hiding behind every tree. By that time I’d begun to organize the workers at my factory. I’d hold weekly meetings and speak to them about the … | Continue reading
(16/54) “When the children were old enough I started reading them Shahnameh before they went to sleep. The stories of Rostam were too violent. They’d cry and cry. So I started with the stories of Iran’s mythic kings. These were the first kings of Iran. They discovered fire, langu … | Continue reading
(15/54) “After my injury Mitra said it was finally time to be realistic. She began to use the words I would hear for the rest of my life: ‘You’ve already lost one eye for your ideals.’ I’d always respond the same way: “I’ve still got one eye left. And I’d like to see the world fo … | Continue reading
(14/54) “We began in darkness. Three hundred years after the Battle of Nahavand. The invaders had plundered the country. Caravans of riches were leaving day and night. There was a huge push to break our unity, to erase our identity, to make us forget ourselves. And whenever a con … | Continue reading
(13/54) “In Germany we started a family. When our first daughter was born we named her Ahang. Ferdowsi uses the word a lot in Shahnameh. It means melody, but it also means willpower. Eighteen months later our son Maziar arrived. After the children were born Mitra said it was time … | Continue reading
(12/54) “She was brave in many ways. But there were three things that Mitra feared most: darkness, silence, and being alone. In Germany we’d take long walks through the countryside. Mitra couldn’t stand the quiet. She’d recite entire poems back-to-back-to-back. At the time she’d … | Continue reading
(11/54) Before our wedding Mitra’s father gave her one final piece of advice: ‘Never let a man enforce his opinions on you.’ And she took it to heart. She was my opposite. My antithesis. The hardest for me to convince. She would tell me I was too optimistic. She’d say that I only … | Continue reading
(10/54) “Mitra loved anything beautiful. She kept countless notebooks. And on every page she’d paste something beautiful: a flower, a feather, a line from a poem. One time we went to a large antique shop, and the owner challenged us to choose the most expensive items in the shop. … | Continue reading
(9/54) “The club was called 𝘕𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘰 The Force. There were ten of us. We were all so different. But we were like charms on a bracelet, united by our love for Iran. It was nothing important: we’d graffiti our slogans onto walls. We’d stand on b … | Continue reading
(8/54) “There’s only one way for love to begin in a traditional society. With the eyes. At the dinner table Mitra disagreed with everything I said. If I said ‘red,’ she said ‘green.’ If I said ‘spice,’ she said ‘sweet.’ But there was something between us. I could see it in the ey … | Continue reading
(7/54) ”In Shahnameh there’s one word that Rostam uses more than any other: 𝘋𝘢𝘢𝘥. Justice. 𝘋𝘢𝘢𝘥 is a simple concept. It means that everyone gets what they deserve: both good and bad. Everyone gets a fair share. The N … | Continue reading
(6/54) “One New Year our whole family took a bus to Qom, one of the holiest cities in Iran. When we arrived in the city it was like stepping back in time. This was a different kind of Islam. It wasn’t my father’s. It wasn’t even my mother’s. It was an Islam from fourteen hundred … | Continue reading
(5/54) “The meaning of our most important words I learned from my mother. 𝘙𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪: Truth. I never heard her tell a lie. 𝘕𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘪: Goodness. I never heard her gossip. And 𝘔𝘦𝘩𝘳 … | Continue reading
(4/54) “My father named me Parviz, after one of Iran’s ancient kings. His story comes at the end of Shahnameh, in the historical section. Parviz was a good king. Not a great king, but a good king. His reign was a golden age of music. But he made many mistakes. His grandson Yazdeg … | Continue reading
(3/54) “It’s been forty-three years since I’ve seen my home. All I have left is a jar of soil. It’s good soil. Nahavand is a city of gardens. A guidebook once called it ‘a piece of heaven, fallen to earth.’ The peaks are so high that they’re capped with snow. A spring gushes from … | Continue reading
(2/54) “I couldn’t find it anywhere. Even on the streets of Tehran, it was nowhere to be seen. The Iran I knew was gone. Everywhere I turned it was nothing but black: black cloaks, black shrouds. The universities were closed, the libraries were closed. Our poets, our singers, our … | Continue reading
(1/54) “We begin in darkness. A siren screams. The invaders come from the desert in a cloud of dust. The king gathers his army at a mountain castle. A single battle decides our fate. The battle burns, the din of drums, the clash of axes, the spark of swords. The dirt turns clay w … | Continue reading
Almost one year ago today a young woman named Mahsa ‘Jina’ Amini was murdered in Iran by the oppressive religious regime that still clings to power today. Her crime was ‘not covering her hair properly’ and ‘wearing tight jeans.’ Mahsa’s act of defiance embodied a fire of resistan … | Continue reading
“If there was a fire in that building over there, and me and twenty other people are on the top floor, I’d get out and they wouldn’t. I only got one leg, but it’s a god damn good sexy leg I’ll tell you that. It’s a sexy ass fucking leg. It’s sexy. It’s sexy as fuck. I’m telling y … | Continue reading
“Summertime and Christmas. That’s when I have her. Been that way for seven years. When she’s not in school, she’s with me. Then at the end of the summer I bring her back to her Mom’s house in Florida. Those drop-offs are the worst; I almost miss my flight every time. I wait until … | Continue reading
“I think when I’m old I’m going to have gray hair. It’s already turning gray, so I’ll definitely have gray hair. Maybe I’ll have bulked up at that point. My dad has skinny legs and arms, but he’s buff in the middle. So hopefully I’ll be that. I’ll probably just be sitting around. … | Continue reading
“I’m the one who calls out. I’m the one who corrects. I’m the one who rephrases. I’ve had plenty of people be like: you can’t tell me what to say. But if you’re allowed to say whatever you want, I’m allowed to react however I want. Right? Maybe my reaction is an attempt to correc … | Continue reading
“Everybody gets butt hurt over words. The ‘Me Too’ movement was necessary. That was good. But then it just turned into everybody getting way too sensitive. You’ve got these people trying to create a bubble-wrapped world where they’re never going to hear a word that hurts them. Ju … | Continue reading
“Everybody gets butt hurt over words. The ‘Me Too’ movement was necessary. That was good. But then it just turned into everybody getting way too sensitive. You’ve got these people trying to create a bubble-wrapped world where they’re never going to hear a word that hurts them. Ju … | Continue reading
“I’m happy sometimes. When I’m feeling loved, you know? When I walk home and my husband is there and he’s so happy to see me. I was really hesitant about getting married. My parents had a bad marriage. So my husband had to talk me into it. And I mean, he had to really push. But i … | Continue reading
“I’m starting to feel calmer about it. People separate all the time, right? Even with children; they make it work. I’m just frustrated that it was thirteen years of my life. He’s a great father. But it was thirteen years of not being loved the way I deserve. Or want, right? Or ne … | Continue reading
“The school wanted to create some new after-school programs. I’d run track in high school. Was I good? No. But I ran. So I volunteered to create the track program. The minimum to form a team is eight girls. Luckily I’m a cool teacher. I’m not rushing them to be grown. And I know … | Continue reading
“I’ve never been a sports person. But I just spent three years locked in my apartment. I’ve cycled through all the arts and crafts already: painting, ceramics, you name it. So I wanted to try a sport. And let me tell you, it’s a whole new level of pressure. Because there are othe … | Continue reading
“I was walking down Broadway with my friend from China. Everyone kept waving at me, and saying: ‘Hi John, Hi John.’ And my friend said: ‘Wow. Everyone knows you!’ I said: ‘C’mon. That’s an exaggeration.’ Right then the door to the Imperial Theatre opened up, and it was an actor f … | Continue reading
“None of the decisions I made led me to fame or wealth, but they have led to really rich relationships. I just kept leaning into the people I cared about. I chose a job that allowed me to work remotely for thirty years. It allowed me to be home a lot with my wife and three daught … | Continue reading
“When he was born I took him see his grandfather. I brought him to the construction site where he worked, so they could meet. But my dad didn’t even make an effort. It was the same thing I remembered from my childhood. Never once do I remember: ‘Oh, let’s go to the water park.’ H … | Continue reading
“Made sure we had food. Made sure we had clothes. Made sure we had a roof over our heads. Electricity may have been cut off a couple times, but we always had somewhere to go. Mama always came through.” | Continue reading
“I never go in for the kill. I know what I look like. I’ve been 6’4” since I was nineteen. When a guy my size makes a move, it can be frightening. So I let the woman lead. I know that when she’s ready, she’ll let me know. She’ll give me the cues. Only when that happens will I pul … | Continue reading
“His mother wanted a break. You know, it’s hectic. She’s a single mother. She just bought a house. It’s a lot taking care of a kid on your own. She thought maybe it would be a good experience for him to come live with Uncle Olasegun for the summer. As soon as she suggested it, I … | Continue reading
“You have to be like super different than any other teenager to get into a good college. But I don’t do many extracurriculars. So I’ve been focusing on my college essay. Our English teacher gave us this exercise to come up with ideas. We had to list all the letters from A to Z, a … | Continue reading
“It’s not too different from when you make a playlist for someone you love. Every lyric, every note, you wanted them to hear. You wanted them to know something. It’s a deep thing. If you tried to say it, it’d be excruciating. But you want them to feel it. It’s the same when you’r … | Continue reading
“Here it’s very hard to know if someone is genuine. I’m not sure about other parts of the country, but at least in New York City. Back in Ghana a smile means: ‘Welcome,’ or ‘How are you?’ It means the person wants the best for you. But here it’s very hard for me to tell where it’ … | Continue reading
“I was making adults cry, with my voice. At the age of six. Everyone recognized my talent. And that’s when I began to tell myself a story: ‘You’re just as good as anyone else, or even better. You deserve everything you want.’ It was a bit egotistical. But it was the story I neede … | Continue reading
“Motherhood is not that hard. Times get hard, financially. But the rest I’ve got in the bag. It’s the post-partum that hit me more than motherhood. But I have to get up and fight through it, every day. I organized all this myself. I want her to know that she has people here who l … | Continue reading
“God is not friend. God is king. God is master. But I love my life. I have everything I need. This is life I want. Some people are slave to phone. I am slave to God. Other people change their God every day, like socks. When God stops working for them, they try a new one. But our … | Continue reading
“I used to be a quiet person. But then I found a group of friends. And they were loud. So I was loud. And now we’re loud together.” | Continue reading
“It was Day 15 of COVID. I’d been eating Wendy’s for 14 days straight. Bacon whatever-the-hell-it-is. A lot of good hot cheesy nastiness. I was starting to feel it, bad. It was like: ‘I gotta move.’ Plus I wanted to let people know: ‘This is New York. We’re not going anywhere.’ H … | Continue reading
“My downfall was when I first got a Kindle. I went straight to the self-published stuff the authors were selling for nothing. A lot of it was Romance. I read stuff my eleven-year-old self should not have been reading. But my favorite was called The ABCs of Kissing Boys. I read it … | Continue reading
“We began as friends. I’d just started growing my hair long. And that was when she was like, you know: I could braid your hair. And then she did it. And it was fire. After that we got into what we got into. It lasted two and a half years. Loved everything about her, truthfully. I … | Continue reading
“My grandmother had this big, antique mirror that she let me keep in my room. I’d stand in front of it for hours, pretending to be my favorite artists: Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand. I’d listen to their records over and over and mimic them. I wasn’t thinking if my voice was go … | Continue reading