‘Sweet Lemons’
From the Jan. 31, 2008 Daily News-Record:
HARRISONBURG - It was Dan Wessner’s first great surprise.
One of Rachel Spory’s, too.
They had just arrived in Iran -a nation that many in the West view with suspicion and fear - as part of a delegation created by the Mennonite Central Committee. Wessner, a professor, and Spory, a recent graduate, traveled as representatives of Eastern Mennonite University.
An Iranian guide handed his visitors a delicacy - a lemon.
Wessner sank his teeth into its rind.
“It was sweet,” he recalled Tuesday afternoon, just two weeks after he returned from the Islamic Republic. “It tasted like a mild, sweet orange.”
These were sweet lemons, unique to Eurasia.
“To me, that became a really important metaphor for all the surprises Iran had in store for us,” Wessner said.
He adapted the name of the fruit as the title of a presentation he delivered Tuesday at EMU’s Seminary.
Wessner, a professor of international and political studies, spoke alongside Spory, who now works for the university, and graduates Paul Yoder and Josh Brubaker, and current graduate student Fatemeh Darabi, an Iranian native.
Yoder and Brubaker also were recent visitors to Iran. They visited in May to present at an international conference in the city Qom.
EMU, Wessner said, is forging personal connections with academic, religious and government leaders in the country.
Those connections could create partnerships that aid the establishment of a new cross-cultural center at the university, the Center for the Study of Abrahamic Traditions. The center would allow members and scholars of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths to collaborate.
“We have to be intentional about relating to each other,” he said. It’s why he, Spory and 10 others from across the United States made the 2½-week journey to Iran.
Posted: January 31st, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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