{"id":3125,"date":"2022-09-03T18:08:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T18:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/?p=3125"},"modified":"2022-09-03T18:08:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T18:08:42","slug":"its-not-easy-bein-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/2022\/09\/03\/its-not-easy-bein-green\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Shaghayegh Hanson<\/p>\n

\n

Do you remember when Kermit the Frog sang \u201cIt\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green\u201d on The Muppet Show? It was humorous, but also deep, because it imparted a message about being different and feeling vulnerable to marginalization by others (at least that\u2019s my interpretation). It comes to mind because I recently had cause to think, again, about how hard being Iranian can be. Speaking for myself, at least, I do feel vulnerable to misperceptions and half-cocked notions about my culture and country of birth. It makes me defensive, which I don\u2019t like but can\u2019t help. Here\u2019s how it played out a couple of weeks ago:<\/p>\n

I was at a dinner party. We had eaten a lovely meal and were sitting outdoors enjoying the summer evening. There were about eight of us conversing and laughing, discussing books, our families, our lives, etc., as you do when you\u2019re in the middling age group. But then I heard someone say, \u201cBut you wouldn\u2019t want to go to a place like Russia or Iran.\u201d It was said in response to one of the guests explaining that she wanted to take on more adventurous travels and even visit places where Americans normally fear to tread.<\/p>\n

Well, there was a time when I would let comments like that go. I mean, even many Iranians avoid going to Iran or warn against it. But, as I get older and this \u201cpariah\u201d state attitude towards Iran becomes more tiresome, I become less tolerant and more defensive.\u00a0 <\/span>I found myself whipping my head around to face the speaker and saying\u2014much more harshly than I intended or was justified\u2014\u201cNo, that\u2019s not true. You would<\/i> want <\/i>to go to Iran, you should<\/i> want<\/i> to go, even if you felt you couldn\u2019t <\/i>go. It\u2019s a beautiful country with mountains and lush valleys, it\u2019s the cradle of civilization with several World Heritage sites, including Persepolis, and the people are warm and welcoming.\u201d I went on like that for a bit, mentioning that tourists do go there and have a great time. I even ventured to say any American would be much safer in Iran than a Black man would be buying a pack of cigarettes in Minneapolis or a child would be going to school in Small Town, USA.<\/p>\n

The speaker was taken aback and looked slightly wounded, explaining that he had been speaking of the government, not the people or the place per se. I knew that . . . or did I? He believed that\u2019s what he meant . . . but was it really? When you measure the value or likeability of a country by its current form of government, how can you be sure you\u2019re not painting your view of its people, its land, and its culture with the same broad brush? I spoke out because it\u2019s important to remind people to use a finer paintbrush and avoid coloring outside the lines, to encourage them to question what they may never have been prompted to question before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, Kermit\u2019s greenness made him different\u2014but, thankfully, he reminded himself (and us) of this:<\/span><\/p>\n

But green\u2019s the color of spring
\nAnd green can be cool and friendly like
\nAnd green can be big like a mountain
\nOr important like a river or tall like a tree
\nWhen green is all there is to be
\nIt could make you wonder why
\nBut, why wonder, why wonder?
\nI\u2019m green and it\u2019ll do fine
\nIt\u2019s beautiful and I think it\u2019s what I want to be.<\/p>\n

I may well have overreacted to a fellow dinner guest\u2019s innocent comment, but man, sometimes it\u2019s just hard being green and all you\u2019re trying to say is green is cool, friendly, important, and beautiful, in case you didn\u2019t know or were unsure.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green Shaghayegh Hanson Do you remember when Kermit the Frog sang \u201cIt\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green\u201d on The Muppet Show? It was humorous, but also deep, because it imparted a message about being different and feeling vulnerable to marginalization by others (at least that\u2019s my interpretation). It comes to mind because<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green - Peyk Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/2022\/09\/03\/its-not-easy-bein-green\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green - Peyk Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green Shaghayegh Hanson Do you remember when Kermit the Frog sang \u201cIt\u2019s Not Easy Bein\u2019 Green\u201d on The Muppet Show? 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