'Gabbeh'

I want to go to Iran.

I want to go and hug everyone over there. Talk kindly to them and show them that this life ain't so bad and that if we all get together, work hard, be nice to one another and live everyday as we if were the luckiest sons of bitches in the universe, then we can get along.

Their current tumult aside, Iran seems like an inhospitable country. Closed off. Angry. Jaded.

In fact, the people aside, it's a beautiful country. One that they should want to share with the world and knock people's socks off as a true destination and a magnificent evidence of God's goodness and creation.

Alas, their abhorrence for anything not Iranian and not part of their culture is so frightening and demonized that it may never work. 'Tis a shame.