The Bloodthirsty Prime Minister

In Charlottesville, a group of us are studying Ruhi book 4 at a snail's pace, on the life of twin manifestations. Our facilitator is Lin Cote, whom we affectionately call the "Jewish mother," and others in the group are the ever late Kaveh Khamooshi and the Persian hip hop queen Houriya Mahboobi. Then, there is Brian Cote, whose humor and wit are ever-present. Nima, the double doctor, occasionally makes a guest appearance. Shahrzad, the peace maker, is another indispensible member of the group.

Brian and Lin picked up on my critical commentary on how Ruhi sometimes over simplifies things. For instance, the prime minister who eventually ordered the execution of the Bab is labelled as selfish, incompetent, and blood-thirsty. I brought up that the man was not all evil and actually was competent in other affairs of the government and we need to be just in our study of history.

The conversation went on with many interpretations laced with humor and came to a new climax when Brian and Lin decided to make a doll out of the prime minister as a gift to me for my birthday. It is beyond the scope of this blog to point out how many painstaking hours they spent in the making of this doll and much fun they had in the process, and how their toaster oven caught on fire while the were cooking one of his belongings Brian had made out of clay... So, below you may find a picture of Ken (yes, the one that broke up with Barbie) transformed into a Qajar statesman, circa 1850 A.D. On him, he carries a book entitled: "10 easy steps to selfishness and incompetence." Shahrzad and I are glad that we will be able to take a piece of the Cote's humor along with us as we leave Charlottesville this July.