Welcome to These Are the True Things!

Sometimes when I’m making a point about something or someone, my mother (she of all good things) will nod her head and say casually “these are the true things.” This has become a common saying in our family, bringing home the fact that the things we say, what we do, our interpretations of others and our own selves, and our conveying of news (akhbar as the Persians say) or gossip (another form of akhbar) are not Truth but true things. I like that a lot.

Periodically, on these pages when time allows, I’ll be laying out some of the true things in the worlds that I spend a lot of time in. It’s banal to say a lot is happening in Iran, the Middle East, and in the world of television. So, it’s not just that a lot is happening, it’s that a lot is happening and a lot of disturbing disinformation is swirling about it, particularly when it comes to Iran and where things are today. Even when what swirls is not disinformation but interpretation, the fact that interpretation is often taken as Truth keeps shrinking our possibilities for understanding. On these pages, I will write some of the true things. I will wander from the present to the past and back. I will swing through fictional worlds and swing back into our world. I will remember my own past and worry that I misremembered it all. And I will always remember my mother’s adage that true things matter and remind you all that these are some of them.