nowruz epitome of incomprehensibility I felt sure I blathed this before! No? It's Persian New Year, aligned with the spring equinox, and it fell earlier than usual this year - yesterday, March 19, 11:06 PM in the EST time zone. Happy precise new year! 240320 ... ovenbird Her father managed to call from Iran last night. The internet has been down for days, for weeks…his calls have been sporadic. He’s okay, he says. Though bombs destroy his sleep. Today is Nowruz. Her sabzeh sprouted into two inch shoots. And now it’s wrapped in a pale blue ribbon on her new year altar. Beside the valiant grass, a mirror, symbol of self reflection and clarity, shows only the face of a blank white wall. A perfect accident, perhaps. Because the world needs a new story, a pristine peace flag upon which to write a very different future. One in which midnight arrives silent and calm, and no one is dying in a pool of their own blood in the streets. 260320 ... e_o_i When I first read the sabzeh blathe, it reminded me of this. And of B. from work, annoying when lecturing in a "here are your mistakes" way but fascinating when talking about things like this, the objects symbolizing spring in an ancient tradition, one that even practical, non-mystical N. felt connected to. To nature, to culture, to people (who are a bit of both). But now with increased worry for the people in the land they grew up in - caught in a war between some of today's worst leaders, who seem perfectly calm about sacrificing *other* people's lives... 260321 what's it to you? who go blather from