guests and movies

missy's high school buddy brendan was in town this weekend. he's beginning some big sojourn of discovery, and he discovered our couch on saturday night. we watched one of the movies from netflix. it took place in iran, and it was called "the color of paradise." it was pretty good, and i think brendan liked it. we both learned a whole lot about iran that we didn't know. for one thing, iran is nothing like you would imagine. it's covered in lush forests and pastures. in fact, you could describe it as a combination of oregon and japan. sean was here a couple of weeks ago, and i made some offhand comment about how greek culture is a lot like persian culture. he told me i was probably full of it and that persians are nothing like greeks. it turns out, persians are a whole heck of a lot like greeks. in fact, the grandmother in the movie wore the exact same outfit that my aunt in greece wore. from the back, she could have been the same person. from the front, she could have been my cousin's grandmother. the father looked and acted like my uncles. their livelihood and villages were just like the ones you might find in greece, if you know where to look. sure, muslims have a very different culture than Christians, but there were a whole lot of similarities. even more than i had imagined. so there.

today's quote:

What do you think your leaders mean,
destroying the world of today?
It means that they don't really give a damn;
all they care about is their greed.
Spending money on bombs and guns,
more than on the human race.
But who are the ones that will have to pay,
disease and starvation they create?
(The Casualties, "Tomorrow Belongs to Us")