Song of Tehran, Rejoicing, Part 3

Greetings:

Here is the final part of my poem; my own favoritesection is the footnote!

Song of Tehran, Rejoicing

This song will end, with rejoicing,
as desires, not covered and poverty, embattled while unfelt.
Education sought. Enlightenment explored.
Joyful gatherings exchanged. And the food, glorious food.*1

Sing the phases of the day. And amongs it all I [re]trod Tehran's present cross-roads to Mehrabad International.
Overwhelmed with foot, relatives, geography, history, current events, joy, And finally you, Husband to whom I dedicate this song, Saeid, rejoicing.


*1. Break of day/6:30AM: Melita-brewed coffee, filter & coffee traveled from the States.

Breakfast/ 8AM: Sugared tea, feta cheese, barbari, nutella.

Lunch/2PM: Horesht Badamjun, rice with tadik, vegetable, Coca Cola, water, doorgh, sugared tea.

Dinner/10PM: Gormeh Sabsi, rice with takik, vegetable, Coca Cola, water, doorgh, sugared tea.

Guests' Meal/Anytime between 3-11PM: banana, apple, cucumber, kiwi, pastry, candies, sugared tea.

Please feel free to send your own poems by clicking on comments below or send them to Mama's email address & she'll post them for you.

Your friend, M2

Song of Tehran, Rejoicing, Part 2

Song of Tehran, Rejoicing, Part 2

Now it's time: Mehrabad to Ahvaz.
Iranian Airlines serves a hot meal on china.
And landing one hour later, the oil fields, haze of 100-degrees farenheit mingle with the
pollution that supports the city. Ahvaz.

Foremost, Mamajun, mother-in-law, sisters, brothers, nephews,
nieces. Rejoice cousins, aunts, uncles, boys & girls, teens and parents and all you
children, rejoice.
In the midst of flowers and food and years of talk, rejoice.

Dare I name each? Let's begin:
Manijeh
Saeid
Massoud & Manujher &Fariba & Shireen & Katy & Mushtaba,
Ali, Ashkan, Shakiba, Sharia, Sharzad!
(The infamous) Parsa & Golsa.
And begin again: Amu Hassan Aragh, with the '38 Vespa & Ameh Pooran his wife.,
Mother of Dariush who's married to Fariba, step mom of Pegah, mother of Parisa.
And my friend Mossein with his hip shop, "Hello!"
Nikoo who paints with a deep-light touch.
Trippy Ali Yazdanian, latterly of India and now publishing his works of art stled
as 21st century "revolutionary spectrums."

Only 75% omitted.
Tehran, Ahvaz, Brougherd, Doorod, the mountains in between and
Isfahan.
Over 75% omitted.

Faithful Readers, please return soon to read the concluding verse of my poem about Iran & my Persian family written from the perspective of an arm-chair traveler. As you already know Part 1 appears in the previous entry.

Cheers, from your friend, Mercury

Song of Tehran, Rejoicing Part 1

My dear friends & fans, Mama et Papa have not yet seen fit to travel with me to Iran, and yet I feel I know that country as I would a distant, but precious cousin. Thus I've written a poem to share with you. Part 1 concerns Tehran. Part 2 skims Ahvaz, Brougherd, Doorood and the mountains along the western boarder. Part 3 explores my family and the food I know they'd serve me-- if they had the chance to do so. So please relax and enjoy this arm chair traveler's tribute to Iran. And note that two of the photos above were shot by my friend in Tehran, Soban, whose erudite blog, Culture & Communication, I urge you to visit.

Song of Tehran, Rejoicing
part 1

May 2005, 3 weeks before Iran's national elections.
Among protests and international nuclear oversight, stand amongst it all, The Carpet Museum,
The Museum of Contemporary Arts. Overwhelmed by happiness as I trod ancient
cross-roads,
I meet 100 close relatives, visit tourist sites and also rejoice.

Tehran. Decorated with fresh flowers
With neon sculptures in each [round] square
Tehran's symphony blares cars, cycles, messenger bikes and voices, belching smog.
One longer line for 1 loaf of sangack, a shorter one, two or more.
North Tehran in early evening cools the heat of a day's frenetic work.
Students gather relaxed, eating cooked beans and cherries, chatting amongst themselves,
sequestered from grownups' ears & eyes, boys & girls, boys with girls.

Another northern neighborhood, each apartment a penthouse. Smelling of roses,
Chanel and beckoning everyone.

Bibi [bakery] marks a central location where girls & boys walk to school and later,
run home.


Please revisit my blog soon to discover my impressions of other areas & imagined experiences in Iran, to meet those 100+ relatives, and to enjoy arm-chair traveling with me.

Yours, M²

Mercury Encounters Beauty

Beauty often requires no [or little] comment. My wish for you, faithful readers, is that you encounter beauty daily.

My meal:

Computer with flowers

World map with flowers.

Me, basking in the sun.

Retraction

Fans and friends: You're in for a big disappointment. I've canceled my columns on mental health/illness and migraines. My co-author, Mama, is dragging her feet over this project.

She said,"I'm far too intrigued with the subject and the sheer vastness of resources is such that no superficial treatment will suffice."

"Superficial treatment!?," I replied haughtily.

She answered only with a grin that was almost a smirk.

End of story.

At least we explored the origins of moxie and it is fair to assert that Mama has plenty of it (the chutzpa, not the beverage). For that matter so do I.

So please return for other, perhaps lighter and more entertaining blog entries in the near future. And for those who must remain disappointed here are a few resources to help you pursue your own interest in mental health/illness and migraines. (in no particular order)

Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization.

Roy Porter, A social history of madness.

Darren Oldridge, Strange Histories.

Jeffrey M. Masson, Lost Prince.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night.

National Institute of Mental Health. "Bipolar Disorder."

and for more general information, google: mental illness NIH

Oliver Sacks, Migraine.

In closing, may you suffer neither mental illness nor migraines and I wish you the fullness of mental health and the pleasures of moxie!

Chill

In the midst of my meditation & research on migraines, mental illness [health?] and moxie, I pause to think of the blessings in my life.

For example: Mama et Papa and the loving home they make for me, walks in the neighborhood, dinner guests such as Amy,Peter & JPEG, a fine & diverse home library, & etc.
But what could be better than....

a personal 1992 4-door Toyota Corolla?

What more conducive to dog-happiness than tooling down the highway, on the way to nowhere, warm breezes ruffling my ears and rural Georgia yielding up it most secret treasures?

Note in the Toyota photo the stickers on the bumper. To the right, an artifact evoking wistful memories of my 3-weeks visit to Berlin as the wall came crumbling [literally] down.

But, on the left, the mark of ownership: a picture of a poodle, my name inscribed underneath.

Truly, the Toyota Corolla is the best car in the world & the best of the best resides in my garage.

If any of you, my loyal friends & fans, have car stories that can top mine, please use the comments section at the end of this entry.

[Any Vespa owners? You're also invited to share tales of Vespa adventures. And see photo of Amu (uncle in farsi) Hassan Aragh below. He kindly treated Mama to a ride on this fabulous machine (car in farsi) And may I recommend the film, Caro Diario.]

Amu Hassan Aragh, 1930s Vespa

Migraines, Mental Health [illness] and Moxie

Mama taught me that alliteration may be insidious, but used in moderation, acceptable, hence the title of today’s entry. As a title the above is misleading, since I plan to tackle each topic on separate days, beginning with the last & proceeding [?] backwards. In any case as the photo suggests, I'm in a serious mood, pondering weighty topics, and [in contrast, perhaps] dressed to the nines, i.e., dressed flamboyantly or smartly. [follow the link "dressed to the nines" for an exploration of the history of that expression]



Let’s explore the first [the last] term: MOXIE.



Backbone, fortitude, determination, guts: those are synonyms for the word moxie. As in, “A person [mentioning no names, for the present] who lives with and within mental illness and migraines with grace and without tormenting others excessively [note the qualification] has moxie.



But, moxie has another meaning, a history, if you will:



Moxie: The first carbonated soft drink to be mass-produced in the United States. It was invented by Augustin Thompson in Lowell, Massachusetts, and patented in 1876 as a medicine. It was marketed as a nerve food that would bestow the user with spunk. The Gentian root extracts use in Moxie’s production gives the beverage a bittersweet flavor with strong aftertaste. While driven off the general market due to stiff competition with corporate giants, it is still distributed in the New England States. Advertisements for Moxie can often be found within early view-cards. [follow the link at Moxie, the initial word of this paragraph]

What is Gentian root, the extract of which bestows a curative power, the Moxie’s punch? [follow the link at Gentian root, third word/s of this paragraph]

Mountain plant of which the root is used for preparing many liqueurs, aperitifs and digestives.

Are there curative powers in many liqueurs, aperitifs & digestives? Is it the root's extract or its combination with other ingredients? Are mental health/illness and/or migraines susceptible to any curative powers that may [or may not] exist?

Abrupt Ending -- a teaser for the following entries in which Mental Health/Illness [glass half full or half empty] and Migraines shall be discussed and then the 3 entries integrated in a 4th & final consideration.