54 Results in the "Non-Fiction" category


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      Chapter Five

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      by testsuphomeAdmin The chapter explores the lives of Cyrus and Ali Shams, Iranian immigrants in Indiana, focusing on their struggles with insomnia and trauma. Cyrus, now an adolescent, grapples with chronic sleeplessness, obsessively replaying daily interactions and imagining social slights. His anxiety extends to fears of deportation and his family’s precarious visa status, exacerbated by his father Ali’s vague warnings about the dangers of revealing their Iranian heritage. Ali works long hours at a chicken farm,…
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      Chapter Four

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      by testsuphomeAdmin The chapter opens with a woman's first flight experience from Tehran to Bandar Abbas on July 3, 1988, against the backdrop of Iran's economic hardship. The narrative paints a vivid picture of Tehran's struggles—families selling heirloom carpets for survival, men raising chickens in bathrooms, and desperate attempts to secure food. A haunting scene depicts young women risking prostitution on Revolution Street, with one girl violently apprehended by secret police. The protagonist's unease during her flight…
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      Chapter Three

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      by testsuphomeAdmin The chapter explores Cyrus's lifelong struggle with sleep, framed as a paradoxical and involuntary performance. From childhood, he finds it absurd that sleep requires pretending—a nightly act of faith rather than a natural bodily function. Unlike eating or breathing, sleep demands surrender to an unreliable process, rewarded with dreams but threatened by nightmares. Cyrus views wakefulness as a corrosive force, a "poison" that erodes cognitive clarity until sleep becomes unavoidable. His resistance to…
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      Chapter Two

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      by testsuphomeAdmin The chapter opens with Cyrus attending an AA meeting at Camp5 Center, a dingy lavender recovery clubhouse frequented by a mix of old-timers and reluctant newcomers. The setting is vividly described—cigarette smoke, a dim basement with plastic tables, and the no-nonsense presence of Angus B. selling cheap snacks. Cyrus’s sponsor, Gabe Bardo, a seasoned figure with 33 years of sobriety, sits quietly beside him. The meeting’s broad topic, “life on life’s terms,” sparks disjointed shares, from a…
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      Chapter One

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      by testsuphomeAdmin The chapter introduces Cyrus, a medical actor at Keady University Hospital who portrays dying patients or grieving family members for medical students to practice difficult conversations. He finds purpose in inhabiting various roles, from Sally Gutierrez, a mother losing her daughter, to Buck Stapleton, a Catholic coach facing his wife's brain death. The job requires him to calibrate emotional responses based on pain scales while evaluating students' empathy through score sheets. Cyrus enjoys the…
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      Cyrus Shams

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      by testsuphomeAdmin The chapter opens with Cyrus Shams, a disheveled and drug-addled young man, lying in his squalid Indiana apartment, desperately seeking a sign from God. After years of silence, he interprets a flickering light bulb as a potential divine message, though he questions whether it’s a miracle or just faulty wiring. Cyrus reflects on the unfairness of biblical figures like Muhammad and Saul, who received unambiguous revelations, while he is left grasping for clarity. His longing for a tangible connection with…
    • Chapter 9: Nowhere and Nothing Cover
      by testsuphomeAdmin Chapter 9: Nowhere and Nothing, In a scene from the Pooh books, Pooh and Christopher Robin are on a journey to nowhere. When Christopher asks Pooh what he likes best, Pooh responds with his love for eating, but Christopher shares that his favorite activity is doing nothing. He describes doing nothing as “going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering,” which is a simple but profound way to express the Taoist principle of embracing stillness and simplicity in life. This…
    • Chapter 4: Spelling Tuesday Cover
      by testsuphomeAdmin Chapter 4: Spelling Tuesday, In a passage from Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh visits Owl in the Hundred Acre Wood, hoping that Owl can help answer his questions. Owl represents the kind of busy, scholarly figure that Taoist philosophers like Lao-tse and Chuang-tse often critiqued, as they believed that such individuals were too caught up in complex thinking to grasp the simplicity of Taoist principles. In the modern world, scholars are still often the ones who study Taoism. However, rather than experiencing life…
    • Chapter 13: Bear Cover
      by testsuphomeAdmin Bear plays a central role in the chapter, where the discussion turns toward Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy." The piece, well-known for its grand theme of unity, becomes the backdrop for a playful exchange between Pooh and the narrator. Pooh, in his usual charmingly simple way, expresses his love for the song and humorously claims that the line “Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!” should be included. He suggests that perhaps Beethoven simply hadn’t thought to mention bears in the lyrics, a moment that…
    • Chapter 6: The Pooh Way Cover
      by testsuphomeAdmin Chapter 6: The Pooh Way, In Taoist philosophy, Wu Wei is often described through the metaphor of a stream that, as it grows and transforms into a river, learns to flow more smoothly and without effort. This principle mirrors what Hoff calls “the Pooh Way,” where things are done effortlessly, without force or struggle. Wu Wei emphasizes acting in a natural, calm manner, avoiding egotistical or combative effort. For example, water naturally flows around obstacles without trying to force its way through,…
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