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Willing Is Not Achieving
By Homa Maddah
homa@tehranavenue.com
May 2010
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Humans are strange creatures. They tell themselves stories that end up raising their expectations and when these expectations are not met, they fall flat on their faces. We have a saying in Persian -- "Willing is achieving" -- that to me is emblematic of this circular attitude. I am sure you can find similar bywords in other cultures and languages.

Sometimes this expression (Willing is achieving) is so meaningless and unrealistic that I go crazy. For example, I notice that in my imagination I try to recreate the feeling of the New Year by thinking of my grandmother's house in Esfahan, when with younger members of the family we shook our booties to the tune of a pop track ("Sussan Khanum") that is heard everywhere these days. Or I imagine a Tehran clean and quiet and without all the tumult that is blighting it today. Instead, the only thing that I see in my mind's eye is the image of a teary middle-aged man with grayish hair who "misses his mother," and chooses three or four of his most melancholic songs to laugh at the New Year television show that he has been invited to (I am talking about {Mohsen Namjoo}).

Or, I hold fast to the image of green saplings along the Tehran-Esfahan Road but what I end up beholding is a desiccated ZAYANDEHRUD River as I walk across MARNAN Bridge with my cousin who is explaining to me that they are trying to make the river bed narrower so that they would be able to "do something with the water." Well they are right -- what's the use of flowing water to people in the land of large damns.

You can see that "willing" has nothing to do with "achieving". I want and like to remember the spring with the scent of a newly rained earth and the scent of flowers pollinating, but the spring allergy doesn't leave me alone and my nose is so clogged that I can hardly smell anything. I want an image of spring, verdant, happy and carefree, but it is not possible and I can't recreate it.

PS: Sohrab was telling me that my writings are full of hope and life. I hope with this one I haven't disappointed him.

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