Love of Paris Aberjhani

For Love of Paris and a More Compassionate World (Part 1)

The article “African Americans in Paris,” published in Encyclopedia of the (Facts On File/Infobase Publishing) begins with several compelling observations:

“From the 1920s to the 1940s, and even well into the 1970s, Paris, France—often called the City of Light—provided a haven of racial and creative freedom for African-American artists. Lucrative, satisfying careers such as the dancing of Josephine Baker were established in Paris, something that could not have been possible in the race-obsessed United States.

“Even before the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans traveled to Paris, especially for conferences, and were awed by the independence and encouragement they experienced there. In New Orleans, Louisiana, early in the 19th century, a Paris- educated Creole named Armand Lanusse organized a black literary society called Les Cenelles. Members of the society sailed to Paris to study because people of color were not allowed to pursue literary education in Louisiana.” ––Sandra L. West (Facts on File History Database )

This tradition of welcoming those who have been oppressed in other lands perhaps stems from a sense of empathy borne out of Parisians own historical struggles to maintain freedom and independence. Having asserted their collective will and intellect to fashion unique applications of justice and liberty, they are also (despite charges of unbearable snobbishness) observers of inspiring compassion.

The city consistently ranks among top destinations for tourists and is a favorite subject of historians. With an estimated 23 percent of its population of 2.3 million people having been born outside of France, it is obviously a favored location for transplants and migrants as well. In fact, because Paris has nurtured the genius of numerous striving creatives and provided shelter for so many weary pilgrims, the previous statements about African Americans can be made in regard to almost any cultural demographic in the world. That realization is only one reason the attacks on the city November 13, 2015, are so difficult for millions of people throughout the international community to comprehend.

1

Love of Paris Aberjhani

Flower of Compassion and Nobel Laureates

Any country’s debatable political policies are components of official (or corrupt) administrative processes. The choice to exercise compassion is an expression of a people’s love for humanity and life itself. Should such love not be answered in kind rather than with soul-demolishing bloodshed?

The attacks on Paris may have been smaller in scale than what the global community experienced on September 11, 2001, but they have proven no less galvanizing. Even as French military aircraft took to the skies in retaliation, citizens of the world continued to converge in the City of Light and cover it with flowers of compassion while embracing citizens (literally) with hugs of solidarity.

Paris has given the world much to celebrate, such as Nobel Laureates in every category: physics, chemistry, medicine, economic sciences, , and, endeavors to establish and sustain peace. Therefore, it has ironically enough tended to produce the very kinds of minds most likely to help resolve the issues that make some feel compelled to abandon the higher callings of their conscience in favor of lesser instincts to feast on horror.

In addition to being one of the French locales where the motion picture industry got its start, Paris remains an important setting for movies in modern times. Most would prefer to believe these well-known reasons for loving Paris do not also inspire the re-occurring attacks on it. Yet in this day and age of fluid human migrations––both from choice and due to war––that which represents a beacon of intelligent discourse in one cultural mindset too often represents an eclipse of ethical proprieties in another. Fear takes over at the precise point when grace should be allowed to steer the heart toward faith, and reflection employed to expand the mind with more substantive awareness. Why do so many instead continue to adopt a much more sinister response?

NEXT: For Love of Paris and a More Compassionate World Part 2

Aberjhani @ 20 November 20, 2015 Bright Skylark Literary Productions

2

Love of Paris Aberjhani

For Love of Paris and a More Compassionate World (Part 2)

Impressive 21st-century technological advances notwithstanding, we have no reasons at present believe our modern global version of the Tower of Babel is about to crumble and then reconstruct itself any time soon. Terrorists, warlords, and state governments alike would do best to include within their strategic plans sufficient measures of sanity beyond the impulses to attempt to coerce each other into unlikely forms of submission.

Different values and worldviews do not have to mean inevitable violence or conflict. They can mean greater enrichment of each other’s lives. Leadership theorist Max De Pree wrote as truthfully as anyone has when he stated, “We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion” (Leadership is an Art). That holds true in modern times whether you propose to be a leader of young malleable individuals eager to become catalysts for positive change or of more established groups dedicated to securing a specific legacy. What matters, above all else, is that everybody matters.

Diversity is an aspect of human existence that cannot be eradicated by terrorism or war or self-consuming hatred. It can only be conquered by recognizing and claiming the wealth of values it represents for all. The situation would be quite different if the violent extremism which has come to characterize anarchistic terrorism and government- sanctioned warfare actually resolved anything. The problem is they do not. Advances are claimed on one front and then annihilation––physical, mental, and spiritual–– witnessed on another. Global poverty, disempowering illiteracy, health crises, and human trafficking linger like the ultimate toxic nuclear radiation. The hearts of infants beat their last, blood dries on abandoned corpses, and souls take their leave of now useless broken bones.

Of Love and Bridges

The 13th-century Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din , whose in Persian has been translated into superb English versions by the 21st-century American poet Coleman Barks, told us that “Love is the bridge between you and everything.” Those are marvelous words to contemplate when struggling to make sense of the avoidable carnage in Paris, Syria, Nigeria, Mali, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Equally marvelous to contemplate is the confluence of sensibilities that has bypassed time, space, and nationality to make Barks’ name virtually synonymous with that of Rumi’s.

3

Love of Paris Aberjhani

Paris in particular is known in part for its many bridges and is legendary as a place that evokes mesmerizing creative expressions of love, in both the greatest of artists and the most ordinary men and women. However, if the idea of loving those whom you have been taught to recognize as your enemies is too overwhelming, consider more deeply the likelihood that we are all much more alike than we are unalike.

Individual cultures and ideologies have their appropriate uses but none of them erase or replace the universal experiences common to all human beings. What civilization does not contain within its histories tales of sons, daughters, husbands, and wives who have been lost to conflict, and whose deaths left gaping voids that could be filled with nothing but grief? In what land do people not hope that the coming New Year will bring with it fewer reasons to bow before fear or despair and greater inspiration applied to an empowered sense of hope and dignity? The more healing options do not have to be dragged into a disposal bin designed for unrealistic dreams and desires.

A Messy and Complicated Concept

The four letters that spell out the word “love”––or five (amour) in French, seven (Кохання) in Ukrainian, or six (upendo) in Swahili–– can indeed add up to a messy and complicated concept. Nevertheless, whatever danger it (love, amour, Кохання, upendo) might pose to human existence is far less fatal than strapping bombs next to one’s heart as if they were newly-earned wings. Nor is it more lethally addictive than the apparent rush that comes from investing billions in war machines and prisons instead of committing the same to much-needed medical research and education programs.

Consider that pain and bewilderment at some point in the course of individual lives knocks people sobbing to their wretched knees no matter where those lives may have originated. Consider that universal agonies, common challenges, and simple human dignity make each of us worthy of some degree of compassion.

Imagine that the strength and resources which may be claimed through communication and reconciliation are far greater and much more sustainable than any likely to come from ignoring everything that binds the fate of one to that of another. The acknowledgement of a single possibility can change everything. It can heal a wounded city like Paris or restore humankind’s faith in what is best within us all.

Aberjhani @ 20 November 20, 2015 Bright Skylark Literary Productions

4