Thoughts from Dr. Joe: Fundraiser draws on common identity
Sunday morning, I was heading to Starbucks for a cup of black tea and to work on my sequel. I could barely hear my cell; it was under the passenger seat.
“Hello,” I said.
It was one of my former students, Arthur Khachatourians. “Joe, Armen and Sarkis have a fundraiser at Anoush Restaurant in Glendale. Come.”
“A fundraiser at 7:30 a.m.?,” I thought. Regardless, I flipped a U-bop and headed south on the Glendale Freeway.
I pulled into the parking lot. Most of the doors to the restaurant were locked. The only entrance was in the back. There was a guy built like a Mack truck with a sinister stare waiting for me. He looked like Clemenza, Vito Corleone’s muscle.
“Hey! Where’s Armen?” I asked
“Follow me,” he replied.
We walked through a narrow corridor and through the kitchen. I felt as if I was Luca Brasi and was about to meet Sollozso. If you’ve seen “The Godfather” you’ll know how that turned out. The big guy opened the door and I walked in.
Undoggone believable! There must have been 15 banquet tables laden with Armenian delicacies and bottles of vodka. The smell of cigarettes was aromatic; it reminded me of a bygone era.
There were 60 or more men of various professions watching a live feed from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the contested territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Stephan Sarssyan, an expatriate and former UCLA student, was explaining how previous contributions helped build schools and provide for orphan children. Many of the men gathered were former students of mine. I was pleased to see that their lives are being well lived.
Armen and Arthur signaled that I sit at their table. They poured three shooters of vodka, and we drank to this extraordinary initiative, Gateway Foundation’s fourth annual Xash Fundraiser.
Sarkis and Armen Kiramijyan along with Robert Tingilian established the Gateway Foundation, a humanitarian endeavor with the expressed purpose to aid families of fallen soldiers, build schools, support children’s centers, and advocate for other charitable initiatives.
Sarkis, a member of the Yale clinical faculty of Interventional Cardiology, spoke. “We gather to celebrate the new year and strengthen our community through service to our culture, our people, and our homeland,” Sarkis said. “There’s more to life that our normal routine. There is an emotional connection that defines who we are.”
Armen, a principle attorney at KAASS Law, added, “Raising funds is incidental to this gathering of men who come together to strengthen the Armenian spirit. Early Sunday morning and feasting on xash honors our traditions.”
Xash, for which the fundraiser was named, is a traditional Armenian soup of boiled cow hooves. The brew forms a thick gelatin. Arthur Khachatourians explained, “Xash is served during the cold Armenian winter. Traditionally, the steam emitted from the soup is channeled upward by a large piece of lavash; subsequently, the xash warms you twice.”
My clan, the Abruzzese from Abruzzo in Southern Italy, serves a similar and traditional winter meal, scatone. Think perciatelli: Pasta is drowned in red table wine and sprinkled generously with black pepper. I have vivid memories of sitting with my uncles and cousins at my nonna’s kitchen table. Outside, the snow was piled to the top of the window.
I understand the intention of Sarkis and Armen to keep the Gateway Foundation void of politics; however, regardless of circumstance or endeavor, the world has political innuendos. If you’ve studied the Armenian Genocide and the contention between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, you’ll understand the inferences depicting Armenia as a tiny Christian nation midst an expansionist ideology of unfriendly nations that span from Kyrgyzstan through Turkey to the Aegean Sea. A nation solvent in infrastructure with a viable culture is self-sustaining.
Xash was a remarkable experience. The traditions and brotherly love depicted by Sarkis, Armen, Arthur, Robert and the others gathered at Xash-2017 were a testament to the strong and vibrant Armenian people.
--
JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.
