I know one of the essay prompts is to meant to explain why "stories that are so sad, so tragic—make us so happy." The reason this quote has stuck with me throughout Lolita in Tehran is because of what happened in my Child Development the class the other day. We had to present a poster of ourselves on how we got socialized. Socialization is where individuals acquire the knowledge, skills and character traits that enable them to participate effectively in society. It was very intriguing to see how people became who they are, it's a mixture of psychology and sociology. One of my classmates was a forty-year old woman and she was going to present a big ass poster that had our class going like "Damn! She is going to present that!" But our shock and exasperation was replaced by wonder and horror. She had lived in Iran during Ayatollah Khoemini's reign. Some of the things she described were so horrorific that I teared up a bit. She described how before Khoemini came to power, things were good. The women could makeup and there was a bit more freedom. But as he came to power, things changed. She was a teenager when that happened. Later on she described how she got married and had a child. She feared for her child everyday because she was christian women living in a very radical world. She described how Saddam Hussein poisoned the water in the water reserves (she lived close to Iraq) and the children in the town were dying and bleeding diarrehea. She described, soon after, how she fled to Greece with fake papers and lived in a basement for eleven months. I don't know if it was coincidence, but It helped bring the memoir to mind and cement the theme of the story.
I can understand why we like to hear about tragic stories. It helps us remind us why our life is good. After hearing my classmates story of her life, I felt blessed to be living in this country and my concerns and problems are insignificant when compared to hers. I complain about being lonely, she was isolated from her beloved brother for fifteen years. I complain that the government is restricting our freedom of speech, she didn't know what it was for her a large part of her life. Without tragedy, we can never know true happiness. We have to be able to compare two different situations to see which is better. But most importantly, when we overcome the tragedy, it is so much sweeter. I believe you can't have happiness without sadness, joy without sorrow, tragedy without triumph. Without any dark emotions, we can't have light emotions. It's like having pure sun without the night. How can we know what sunlight is when we have no darkness? There would be nothing, things would just exist. I think that we would just exist, if we only had positive emotions. We would not live. There is a difference. Existing implies that we move from one scenarios to another, we are rootless with no foundation. Living means that we have an active role in shaping our future, we actively feel and change. That's all I have to say.
I think that that is an amazing story. I love how sometimes things just come together like that. How it is like we just read about that kind of situation and you get to witness someone in real life who has gone through that. That is a truly wonderful experience. I totally agree. I sit here and complain how I have three jobs I am going to school, I am tired and I feel lonely. Then I have someone come up to me and tell me how their parents died and they cannot find a job and I realize wow my life is okay. I never would have realized this if it were not for the tragic story. But yes I do feel that when we hear something that is tragic, it makes our life so much easier. I too agree, if I did not know what sadness was how would I know what true happiness feels like. I feel like I would not be the same person I am today if I did not go through the rough times that I have been through. I love the conclusion of your blog. It is so true and it really made me think about my own life and how I feel about it sometimes. All I really have to say to you is thank you for your kind words of wisdom.
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