A great lesson in the magic of embracing ties
Several years ago, I was enjoying one of my best vacations ever - a long road trip in Iran. It was an unusual choice for an American, a fact driven home when my little group visited a ninth-century Christian monastery near the northwest border with Azerbaijan.
Except for two Japanese professional photographers, I was the only foreigner on the site, and perhaps in the entire area. As we strolled across the rooftop of the beautiful gothic monastery, however, two school buses pulled up below and a swarm of 8-year-old boys on a day outing suddenly surrounded us.
If they were fascinated by the remains of a cloister originally built more than 1,000 years ago, that was nothing compared to finding an American on top of it. What were the odds of that?
