Dreams of Persia

I suppose one shouldn't count one's eggs until they're hatched. Don't tell everyone that you're going to ask the cheerleader to the prom, or announce that you're applying for a Rhodes scholarship, or brag that you'll write the great American novel just as soon as the kids leave for college. But, dang it, some things are so exciting -- you just have to shout them from the treetops.

My sister and I purchased airline tickets to Tehran today!

We're gambling (with non-refundable tickets!) that between now and April, Israel won't have nuked Iran back to the stone age, nor will the Islamic Republic have sent its citizenry pouring out of Iran and across the Middle East in a modern day jihad. Nope, we're just hoping that everything stays nice, calm, and peaceful-like -- at least until this trip's over.

My college alumni association is sponsoring what it calls a "suitcase seminar." The announced focus of the two-week visit will be ancient Persian and medieval Islamic architectural and archeological sites, to be studied in some detail as we loop our way around the entire nation. But obviously, we'll be keeping our eyes open wide to the rhythms of modern day Iranian life, and to the thoughts and attitudes of the country's citizens. Everyone who visits Iran says that its people are extraordinarily friendly and hospitable to foreign visitors -- even to us visitors from the Great Satan itself.

Our guide grew up in India and Pakistan, the son of a U.S. foreign service family. After college, he spent 35 years as a career diplomat himself, serving as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, and (before that) Poland, under the Clinton administration. At present, he holds academic positions, specializing in modern Islamic civilization and East-West relations, at both Stanford and Harvard. I trust that his diplomatic skills will serve us well, getting us into and (especially) out of the country in one piece.

I suppose I'll have to remove my Facebook link to this blog, once I apply for my visa in January. As sympathetic and friendly as my feelings have always been toward the Iranian people -- and despite my being neither Jewish nor a disaffected Iranian exile -- I'm sure that somewhere in my 338 posts (to date) I've said something that might offend a rather paranoid Iranian leadership (e.g., this sentence itself). I'll keep holding my breath and trying to stay on my best behavior until I have my visa actually in hand.

More to come on this very interesting trip as the months pass.