Just Thinking

Just Thinking
The Hidden Wisdom in a Bowl of Popcorn
September, 2024
Kam Zarrabi

Mutch to my surprise, I saw in the cable TV the horrible news of mass starvation, disease and slaughter that has been taking place for a long time in the Northeast African Republic of the Sudan. We are talking about, not thousands, not even hundreds of thousands, but millions of fellow humans already gone, or at the verge of what the UN calls the largest human catastrophe going on in our planet.

If You Like Swiss Cheese, Pretend That's What the Moon is Made Of!
August 2024
Kam Zarrabi

It looks as though all hell is about to break loose in the Middle East; again! Our friend and ally, Israel, retaliated against the brutal, unprovoked attack on a playground in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights area killing scores of young children who were simply playing soccer. Israel retaliated by targeting a Hezbollah leader's residence in Beirut, Lebanon, and assassinating the political leader of Hamas who was in Tehran, Iran.

I recall when the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, made his "infamous" remark right after the October 7th Hamas attack on an Israeli settlement, which started the now ten-months-long war between Israel and Hamas, that "That did not happen in a vacuum!" He was immediately condemned for making that statement by Israel and its Western allies headed by the United States. Didn't Mr. Guterres understand that we and our allies, especially Israel, have never initiated any act of violence or transgression, and that such acts upon our interests have always been unprovoked by groups we have designated as terrorists?!

July 1, 2024
By Kam Zarrabi

The severe thunderstorm last Thursday afternoon knocked out our electricity for a few hours, which forced me to jump in the car and start searching for a diner with its light on to grab something to eat before the much anticipated and unprecedented presidential debate was to be aired on CNN.

Power was restored just before the event, while the usual panel of highfaluting media experts was still at it telling the viewers what to expect to see. I wasn't really surprised to see what the opening segment was about to reveal.

June 2024
Kam Zarrabi

It was a couple of weeks after my partner of 25 years, Linda Gray, had succumbed to a sudden massive brain hemorrhage exactly a month ago. To help cope with that heart-wrenching loss, I decided to hit the hiking trails in the Boston Hill area.

I had done the same thing once before, right after falling victim to a devastating bout with a serious sinus infection that had led to what I can best describe as a debilitating brain fog and a bout of depression back in 2017. I wasn't young then, either; at 82 the thought of having to stay on psychotherapeutic medications, perhaps for the rest of my life as I was told, whatever was left of it, was too much to accept. After a few weeks, I dumped the pills in the trash and said to Linda: "Honey, I want your approval of what I intend to do. I am going to put my hiking shoes on and push myself to the limits of what my body can take hiking up the Boston Hill trails for as long as I can. If I die of a heart failure or a stroke, so be it; I have already lived a long enough life anyway." Her response was exactly as I expected: "You do what you want to do, anyway; but I do think you know what is best for you; you have my approval, as long as you call me that you are OK."

I'm Not Holding My Breath
May 2024
Kam Zarrabi

Having lived here for nearly seventy years, I never thought I'd ever see any open and direct criticism of the Jewish state, Israel, America's Sacred Cow, no matter what it does. But, something seems to have changed; or has it, really? So, read on!

What's going on with the anti-war and pro-Palestinian demonstrations by students in some of the most prestigious universities across the country? Don't they know that the proper and approved way to express your protests is to assemble and demonstrate peacefully, state your opinions and demands, disperse when ordered, and then return to your classrooms like good boys and girls? But if you truly want change, that's not how it works!

Let's face some realities that are seldom if ever appreciated: Who are these college-age "kids" between the ages of 18 and 25, and what is their problem?

Am I supposed to feel lucky that it's not my problem?
April 2024
Kam Zarrabi

There was a lingering thought burning a hole through my skull that needed to burst out, which it finally has! What triggered this explosive event was a repetitious dog food TV commercial showing individually packaged portions, each with well-balanced nutritional ingredients, which actually looked appetizing enough for human consumption. "How fortunate our pet dogs!" I thought to myself!

That picture was contrasted against the scenes on TV of the wounded and emaciated children struggling to reach meager handouts of scraps, seemingly oblivious of the dangers of bullets and bombs. Those scenes are from Gaza; but there are other equally or even more disturbing pictures coming to us from the war and famine stricken areas of the world, pictures that most of us prefer to ignore. Thanks for the dog food commercials that distract us.

On the Dilemma of Separation
Philosophical Reflections
March 2024

Kam Zarrabi

Listen to the reed flute as it laments;
Lamenting of the agony of separation:
"Ever since I was cut off from the reed bed,
Man, woman, young and old
Have shed tears of sorrow,
Hearing my cries of desperation.
Oh, where is a heart pained in abandonment,
To comprehend my tormenting nostalgia?
Ah, the agony of separation from one's essence;
And the eternal search for repatriation."