The only thing that counts in the end is 'the personal' I won the lottery the day I was born (as did hundreds of millions of others). This more than anything defines me. Others see us differently than we see ourselves. poetry, i am a living poem -a write to speak, i choose to grow; Whoever said "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" was telling the truth This has to change. We are change. (Dot Org! ;-) SHOESTRING Who am I? To be honest sometimes I don't even know. Card Shark My culture is the result of the union of these forces. a designer, a teacher and a director of research for a non-profit institute. I am imperfect. I have many ideas, pains, hopes, faults, dreams... and I just want to live this life as I best can. Whatever that means. As a New Englander and then Midwesterner, my given culture is uninspiring, not what I am celebrating. If you must ‘be’, you must be all that you can be. You ‘are’, so ‘be’. We're being turned into children How can we really ever know? What are all the things that we “do?” How much of our participation in lives is ever understood as a sense of result? a predicted outcome free from bias and a hypothetical outcome and if then statement of things to come. I am who I am. Seems trite, eh? I am not my self and not my thoughts. I'm my presence and my wake: the end all. It was my world and my world was me. It is a place where I can be anyone, anything or just me. While all is 2, we must choose our '1'...............each choice being a leap into the crucible of 'chance'. As for the details on who I am it’s hide and seek We’ll save that for another day For the day we actually meet… and I shine like the moon in the evening. I got what you need and been searching, pursuing and seeking: A dude to believe in, that’s me, Why should I choose? many in one; Designer, engineer, abstract thinker, situationist, iconoclast, polemicist, and general irritant. I've wanted to explore my Mayan/Spanish heritage; but, then I worry: isn't just my privileged white educated post-colonial self appropriating my Otherness, the one I know little of? kind hearted, head strong, mistakabley rude, please redefine, but to me I have always been myself, undefinable. Speaker of truth to power. culture clash complete anglo-saxon/americanadian, type-a, agnostic/secular, capitalist/socialist, consumer/environmentalist, skeptimistic pragmatist; The city has left me distant and cold, but without it, I would not be a painter. Aficionado of single malt whisky and coffee. Keeping me intact. I am socialite, a high achiever and a star. I am lucky to be alive... But like the rabbit in Through the Looking Glass, I'm late, I'm late. I helped create and sustain 3 new lives. Other than that, how important can anything else be? I am: Humanitarian, Utilitarian Innovative, Creative Original, Whimsical Realist, Idealist Hopeful, Joyful I am. I am among the luckiest of the lucky. So depending at what point in my life we met you would probably call me by either Francisco, Sharka, Pancho Cisco, Sr P ,Francis, Fran, Frank, Pereira, Franny, José, Paco, Peludito, Gosh, Mijo, Gordito, Che, or Bro. Not them, not him, not her, us, or we Just me…me, myself and I Because I am Fereshteh Forough. An individual with a mind of her own. Strong opinions yet open to new and different perspectives. So, then, I choose be an enigma, more than self, more than community, still humbled by the wonderful complexities of life. I have left my mark in many ways but few can read these marks. I am always underestimated. I desire to be remembered as a champion of diversity. i am the product of my only homeland. art & design; shapes who i am constantly; Life is art: design it. Life is music: Improvise it. Let's jam together. Life is a beautiful incident A trailer park for the soul to be determined later; Explorer of personal and social consciousness, Designer of possibility, Researcher across borders and meanings fairy dust; I am a necessary and inevitable possibility, and beyond that I have no clue. Have I already contradicted myself? Probably. Essentially you are asking who I am. I am a field of possibilities self-directed toward a certain dream in sidereal time. Beyond all the questions, seeking, and results, I am someone who creates time, and lives for the love and creative participation disclosed in that time we’ve created together. Yours in the journey, Peter I neva eva deny What I am, who I am, where I am and why Brash and garish? Perhaps, but