"I thought Persian values was about driving Mercedes and Ferrari's," said the 20-year old Persian college student innocently as we were riding on a Long Island Railroad train to Great Neck the other night. "I understand why you might think that," I said, "but true Persian values, believe it or not, are actually quite non-materialistic." He was understandably surprised, so I told him about the song lyrics below, whose subplot is about a man who was dumped by a woman. But the real story of the song is about being content with what you have.
Utterly free
From Because and Why
With what is given by God
Always content
Always content
After complaining to her about why she left him, the man goes on to declare himself to be a Darvish, a mystical figure whose origins are beyond the scope of this blog. For our purposes, note the man's attitude toward material things.
I am a darvish
And the world to me
Is nothing but a fist full of soil
The whole sum of my belongings
Is a pure heart.
A darvish will spend the night
On any old rag
A drop of water
Or an entire sea
Makes no difference to him.
(Golpa's "Darvish")
Only Thing I Own is a Pure Heart
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Money....ahhhh...the classic creator of all fights within families. Money the ultimate force that has driven us to think that Materialism is everything. Money....to want the inheritance instead of the person who has left it behind and to create fights within a family just for money, how about going to work and being nice to your wife and kids, G-d gives money to the people who deserve it, to those who give love to the people around them.Money... To do nothing and want something. To not pay people back what you owe them. To Persians now a days money has become what keeps them apart from the rest of the world. If you don't have it then you can't join our group, if you don't dress like us don't show up at our kenisa/ shul/ synagogue--Money has made a lot of us feel as if our Saturday mornings have become fashion shows. Being Persian shouldn't be about money it should be about living with what we have and buying what we need not what is in fashion, not necessarily to have to carry the bag of the week, but to have something to wear and not to push others away because they don't have as much money as you or not as spoiled as you. Within the Persian community we have created "social groups" the we are very rich, the we have but are not so rich, and the are trying to live on what we have. The very rich are excluding the two other social groups and this what they are defining Persians to be, even though we are all Persian and we are all Jewish, so we should all be friends.Treat people right, have a pure heart and money will come straight into your hands, because God provides money for those who deserve it most!
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