Flight 1407 - 12/08/2002

Written on Flight 1407: returning to Oakland from NYC. 12/8/02

There are two ways to enter a new world: Either to be terrified or to decide to be eaten whole and to become enlivened by it. To be moved and changed and to see and feel things that one would never have guessed or even imagined. To be thrown, hurled, tossed, turned inside out and yet never feel that it is not pleasant.

This is the transformation that began in New York for me. To think that a boy who had always thought that he would have to return to the country to find safety and community and instead realizing that I had found in a city of 8 million strangers, all of whom are my brothers and sisters, as well as my cousins, my mother, my father, my grandmother, and my grandfather.

This is what I’ve found to be me:

Upon arriving I was filled with a slight apprehension. “New Yorkers are rude and in a hurry.” I could not have found this to be further from the truth. Strangers immediately helped me find my way and were gracious about it even though it was a Friday night and they were obviously on their way to something important in their own life. The open smiles, the many languages, the unlimited races and cultures all living in one place. It was both perfect and peaceful. It is hard to explain gracefully what New York means to me. Suffice it to say that I cried almost everyday because of the beauty, the love and the unbeatable spirit of the people who had been through such horrid times.

I have traveled to many places and have never felt the love that I felt in New York except one place: Hiroshima, Japan. It is my belief that the people of these two cities experienced the worst humanity can do and decided that love and kindness can stop it from happening again.

In New York, I saw the play “Our Town.” It is about a town much like Healdsburg, my hometown. The play is about a small place where nothing happens except life and how each second of it is important: birth, marriage, death. Everything passes quickly and if you don’t make the most out of each second, you miss life. Three seats from me Christopher Reeves sat in his wheelchair. I could not imagine what he must have been thinking after being on top of the world and then having that taken away. However, he, like New York and Hiroshima and hopefully each one of us, sees at that moment, that, no matter how simple and basic what we are doing right now is, it is of the utmost importance. My eyes well with tears as I tell you this and hope you understand what you all mean to me.

Love,

Aram

Throwing shoes and other unmentionables

I was reading some posts about the reporter that threw the shoes at President George W. Bush. My initial reaction was “Good, I just wish he had hit him in head or better yet, used a bullet.” Then I thought about my shadow. I believe that we all have a shadow and that if we don’t deal with our shadow, it will slowly kill us. I believe that Bush, or in all actuality, Bush’s mindset, is my shadow. His seemingly inability to care for others, think with an open mind or realize that he is the creator of the hatred and terror that he is afraid of is utterly destructive.

Simply said, Bush stands for everything I abhor. That is such a simplistic and easy answer. In reality it means that I need to examine myself and how I react when I am faced with opinions and ideas that are differnt from mine. I need to realize that, even if I think they are absolutely wrong, I need to find something that connects me with that person and their beliefs. If arguing and anger would have changed their minds, it would have already have happened. If love and acceptance can’t do it, at least I know I didn’t add to the distrust and anger in the world.

I look at all the different wars that have been fought through history and it saddens me. When people talk of the different wars, and why their were righteous, I tend to think of the “Christmas Truce” of World War I. There was a truce declared on Christmas Eve, 1914 when the Germans started decorating their trenches in Ypres, Belgium. The Scottish troops in the trenches on the other side responded by singing carols. Both sides continued singing to each other and then, amazingly, the soldiers came out of the trenches and shared gifts with each other. Eventually, the two “waring” sides played soccer and, it seems, became friends. The British Generals, Sir John French and Sir Horrace Smith-Dorrien vowed that there would never be another Christmas Truce. The reason? The soldiers actually stopped the war and the Generals had to bring in new soldiers because the soldiers no longer wanted to kill someone they knew as friends. The reason I bring this up is that when we see people as they are, instead of dehumanizing them, it is easy to see how immoral it is to hurt them. Everyone has a right to live and be treated with respect. I will try my best to do just that.