خورشید گرفتگی

امروز که خورشید گرفت، دل من هم گرفت. دفعه قبل که خورشیدگرفتگی را مشاهده کرده بودم با پدرم در تهران به تپه های عباس آباد رفتیم. کی باورش میشد اگر کسی به من میگفت این همه، همه چیز عوض میشود، هم خوب هم بد. به هر حال خورشید هم که هر روز مایه حیات ما و هر آنچه روی زمین هست و بی شائبه به همه نور و انرژی میبخشد، هر از چند گاهی دوست دارد مرکز توجه عالمیان باشد و ناز کند و خودش را قایم کند. راستش را بخواهید، حق هم دارد. هر چه باشد مرکز منظومه شمسی ماست و همه دور او گردانیم. درعوض بعضی از ما آدمها فکر میکنیم مرکز دنیا هستیم و هر روز همه توجه ها باید‌بر ما باشد.

Image credit: NASA, taken from https://www.nasa.gov/images/content/706822main_20121113-totaleclipse-orig_full.jpg

Maryam

These days many in our community are thinking of Maryam Mirzakhani battling cancer. She is a genius mathematician, first female Fields Medalist in the world, a Stanford professor, member of National Academy of Sciences, and a mother. My sadness reminds me of a distant bittersweet and difficult time in her life and people who knew her. I remember emotions I felt vividly. I had just came to U.S. I picked up a local Persian newspaper from a Persian restaurant. I saw picture of the National Mathematics Olympiad team on the cover. I happily opened the newspaper to the related page to see if there is news of number of medals they won, or other similar achievements we were used to often hear about them. My joy quickly turned to sorrow as I read more. They were all in a fatal bus accident, when traveling to a camp in preparation for their international competitions. Each individuals image and name was still fresh in my memory from their TV interviews and newspaper reports. I wept and wept not having read the article to the end. Few days later, I revisited the article. As I read more, my sorrow diminished.  Maryam and a few others had survived that bus accident. I now read news articles about her fighting cancer. There must be a final line missing. That she has survived again. I am searching for that newspaper.

http://www.payvand.com/news/17/jul/1066.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani

Loss and Gain

Today I attended a workshop titled Navigating through Loss. It was about how people cope with loss, different emotions and behaviors one experiences due to loss, examples of what a loss can be, etc, definitions of bereavement, loss, grief, and mourning.  An interesting point that was mentioned there for me was that even happy life events, such as marriage, birth of a child, or their graduation can cause similar emotions and feelings because whenever there is a gain, something is lost.  That is so true, yet not acknowledged enough.  We lose our single independent life when we move in with a life partner and then we lose our partner to some extent when we have a child. Combine all these with some real life losses of other family members passing and you get a mess you do not know what/who to blame for! 

زندگی

یکی به‌عبادت و مسجد‌و‌خانقاه و یا کلیسا پناه میبرد، یکی به رقص و‌ می و‌میکده و خوشگذرانی، و یکی از‌دنیا‌ و‌آدمیان میبرد و‌ در‌ کنج خانه می‌نشیند. هر‌یک به گونه‌ای از زندگی‌ و‌ هر‌آنچه آن  به ارمغان میآورد، می گریزند.