Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)

by Daniel Nayeri

I don’t want your pity. If we can just rise to the challenge of communication—here in the parlor of your mind—we can maybe reach across time and space and every ordinary thing to see so deep into the heart of each other that you might agree that I am like you.

But people get married for all kinds of reasons, so she still wanted him. One thing that is interesting is that lots of poisons taste sweet. They’re not like acid. They’re like syrup. This is interesting because you can imagine Maryam taking a drink of mulberry cordial one night and saying, “Mmm, shirin,” which is the word for “sweet,” and also the word for her killer.

Every side of an explosion looks different.

If you’re looking at a bull collapsing to the ground and I’m beside you looking at it, we’re seeing two bulls die, two rivers of blood, two everything. That’s why there is an infinite labyrinth of stories, even in just one family.

Sima—who was such a fierce Muslim that she marched for the Revolution, who studied the Quran the way very few people do—read the Bible and knew in her heart that it was true.

So when you’re evaluating whether she’s sincere in her belief or a lunatic, you should know she’s got more degrees, speaks more languages, and has seen more of the world than most people you know. And how do you know anything for certain anyway? Maybe don’t be so certain all the time.

HERE’S SOMETHING ELSE YOU need to understand: Sayyeds don’t convert. That’s why I told you all that stuff, so you’d understand how mad everybody got.

A god who listens is love. A god who speaks is law. At their worst, the people who want a god who listens are self-centered. They just want to live in the land of do-as-you-please. And the ones who want a god who speaks are cruel. They just want laws and justice to crush everything. I don’t have an answer for you. This is the kind of thing you live your whole life thinking about probably. Love is empty without justice. Justice is cruel without love. And sometimes, like Sima, you get neither.

AND IN CASE IT wasn’t obvious, the answer is both. God should be both.