Dear Farnaz:

You are welcome and thank you: it is a great pleasure and benefit for me to be here with you, to communicate as we do!

“This reminds me a particular mother an infamous one called Diane Downs who killed her children because she wanted to be with another guy who didn’t want kids…“- I read at least one True Crime book on Diane Downs (“Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder” by Ann Rule). True Crime used to be my genre and I read a lot of it. One reason was that I was better able to understand my mother when reading about murderers. Here is a quote from the book I just mentioned, in regard to Diane Downs, a quote that perfectly fits my mother: “histrionics never learn to give up center stage or their beloved mirrors“.

“Speaking of unintelligent, oh my god, that’s the worst part, I mean, if you add stupidity to all her unpleasant traits, it would be unbearable. There is an old saying in Persian which is, in my opinion, very brilliant, and I quote: ‘A wise enemy is better than a stupid friend’, at least I could respect the first one“- it’s the combination of my mother’s ignorance and her insistence to not learn, that angers me. No matter how hard I tried, as a teenager and onward, having read books on mental health and such, to teach her something, anything at all…  she INSISTED to not learn, not a SINGLE THING.

“Another of her very good qualities were enjoying her sweet times when she made a (chaos?) , it was natural like breathing to her“- I think that my mother had to make her internal, private chaos=> external and public. It was a relief to not be in chaos all by herself.

“There is something called sugar addiction… the price for flavored, full of sugar or salt, is much lower than healthy alternative snacks… there is a conspiracy against people held by food industries“- sugar and the combination of salt and sugar is addictive and food industries will do anything and everything to increase sales and profit, as long as they can legally get away with it. Because adding sugar and salt is cheap, not illegal and profitable, these are added to numerous products.

Stevia grows in northern Iran…? Maybe it is an economic opportunity for people there (it is very expensive here and it is my biggest chosen indulgence, as far as expense goes).

anita