Pulished in Payvand.com, March 10, 2000
A time to get elevated from part to whole,
A time to heal body, mind and soul.
Every nation, religion and ethnic group,
Pagan, Christian, Moslem and Jews,
Set aside a time to celebrate life,
We Persians do it at Novrooz.
Promotion of good, suppression of evil,
Was our ancestors’ objective of devising Novrooz.
To pave the rocky road of human relations,
To make the journey of life bumpless and smooth.
With good thoughts, good words and good deeds,
Following moderation and avoiding abuse.
Novrooz was meant to keep us from going astray,
Through visits, forgiveness or shmooze.
Then came the age of excessive greed and materialism,
Excess selfishness and erosion of values.
Lack of contentment with our own lot,
Acquisition of wealth, no matter whose.
Suppression of peace, promotion of wars,
Enjoyment to kill, maim and bruise.
No difference between war and peace,
For making money, each is a good excuse.
By allowing our human attributes to vanish
We are all becoming time bombs with shorted fuse.
We explode and implode but never find peace of mind,
With no time to defuse the bomb in us and no time to soothe.
The noble purpose of Novrooz, too, is being lost,
Through ignorance, negligence or shear misuse.
To avoid Novrooz and the company of others,
Many do not stay home but travel or take a cruise.
The real message of Novrooz is that it tells us,
Let us learn from the past and start a new Rooz.
I have seen miracles in Novrooz message,
You, too, can see it if you walk in my shoes.
All modern inventions and modern pills,
Can not have the healing power of our real Novrooz
Novrooz heals through what, I call “high touch,”
That dwarfs the “high tech”in reducing our blues.
Keeping in touch with others is a far better way to heal
Than cruise, excessive booze and all-day snooze.
High touch is also the cheapest way to heal,
Try it once, you have nothing to loose.
When greed and materialism exhaust you,
Reach out for someone’s hand, no matter whose.
In the journey of life you still have the choice,
To follow Mother Teresa or Howard Hughes.
Loving, touching, sharing and caring,
Are the secret healing powers of Novrooz.
Last summer I visited Iran,
Stayed mostly in Tehran.
Not because of its traffic and clean air!
But because my relatives were there!
This is where a metropolis of ten million,
Looked like one of ten zillion!
Cancerous growth of this beautiful city,
Triggers any nature lovers' pity.
Like all big cities in the world,
Outgrown its limits manifold.
For its traffic, noise and pollution,
No one has found a sound solution.
One is better off to stay indoors,
Go to resorts, or to foothills of Alborz.
Otherwise one can go insane,
From disorders of body, mind or brain.
One summer day my nephew Hassan and I,
Told the Metro Tehran good bye.
We drove to the Alborz foothills,
Parked and used our hiking skills.
We ran away from the city at surise,
Till we could barely see one high rise.
Darakeh was the canyon we took,
A lovely oasis with trees and a brook.
We saw dozens of people on the trail,
Yound, old, femail and male.
It really multiplied my fun,
To see the love of nature catching on.
Imagine my delight to see one on the go,
Who was my student some thirty years ago.
Clean and crisp air was very cool,
Traffic consisted of Man and mule.
Fresh air, running water and shade,
The songbirds and the chorus they made.
I briefly stood under the brook,
And felt like a fish off the hook!
We hiked about ten miles that day,
Longer for any one day I'd say.
Nature unlocked in me such a strength,
Tuned my spirit to a new wavelength.
My spirit was so uplifted that hence,
Its memory helps me when I am tense.
A regular dose of outdoors is my pill,
When I seek high, enthusiasm or thrill.
I don't trade this with any drug,
Liquor, sex or a good hug.
Away from nature I am fish out of sea,
Which is where no fish ever should be.
Every time I go to the outdoors,
My spirit like an eagle soars.
The reason the world is going insane,
Is for going so much against the grain.
Divorced from nature and gone astray,
Having left its common sense at bay.
Putting its cart before its horse,
And wondering why things get worse.
Spending millions till it is poor,
Ignoring prevention, rooting for cure!
Wrtitten on the occasion of my trip to Iran in summer of 2000