The Noble Calling of Salim Cinna

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The book has a really interesting metaphor throughout of like well his metaphor begins with pickling. He's thinking similarly about these things what he's saying is, I keep noticing the adults in my life. Some of them have been greatly hurt. And some of them just passed that on like they eat food and then poop food like they are animals as in the way the animals do nothing but bring stuff in and take stuff out. So what is this noble calling of someone in this case like his mother, we're able to metabolize all of this pain andturn it into something artful or turn it into something caring.

Do the stories we tell about ourselves have the power to change us? Our guest today says they can.

To wrap up our season on meaning and purpose, we talk with author Daniel Nayeri. In his award-winning young adult novel, Everything Sad is Untrue, Daniel writes from the perspective of his twelve-year-old self, sharing the story of how he, his sister, and his mother immigrated from Iran to Edmond, Oklahoma, after his mother’s conversion from Islam to Christianity. Although this immigration kept his family out of prison (or worse), life in the U.S. came at a cost, too. Through his storytelling, Daniel also processes what he left behind: his beloved stuffed animal ("Mr. Sheep Sheep"), a life of comfort in Iran, and his larger-than-life father.

In this episode, we explore finding meaning through storytelling, the impact of an active imagination, and how the sustaining hope of the Christian story makes even a refugee camp in the Italian countryside a place of opportunity and joy.