I read the tales of Rostam from the Shahnameh to my kids years ago. The North Coast Great Books Discussion Group is reading the Shanahmeh (the Persian Book of the Kings by Ferdowsi) this month and it has been many months since I participated. I’m looking forward to our discussion.
There are so many amazing lessons in this work. This morning I was struck by a moment where the young hero Rostam mounts his horse Rakhsh heading off to support the warmongering king in a war they never should have entered into. As Rostam’s mother and father are seeing him off there is a tender moment with them both.
Zal embraced Rostam and invoked many blessings on his head, and Rostam, with his cheeks flushed and his heart firm in its resolve, mounted Rakhsh. Rudabeh came to her son , her face wet with tears, and Zal too wept bitterly over him.
As a culmination of the scene leading up to this and as I reflect on my own children heading off into the world and as I reflect on the many young men sent off to war for power hungry men, this moment captures a certain part of the human condition. The next two sentences to end this part of the story rang so true.
They bade him farewell, not knowing whether they would ever see him again. So passes the world, and a wise man knows of its passage, and with every day that goes by, your body becomes more free of the earth’s evil.
I had to sit with that here today. I hope to live many more decades, but I can feel the uncertainty in this passage. I can feel my body becoming more free of the earth’s evil.
I love to hear stories. How fortunate we are to have stories to share.
Solomon Everta 