A Perfect Armenian - Author's Journal

When I had finished this book, a very smart person asked me, what did you learn from the main character, Tavid? The question took me back a little bit. At first I said, "I created him, I didn't learn anything from him." But a few seconds passed and I realized that Tavid Kaloustian had taught me a great deal. Because we learn from all of the characters that we create in our mind, the voices in our head. Here's what I came up with:

You are going to make mistakes along the way. Hopefully, none of them are fatal.
You are in control of your own destiny, environment, and the perception of the world around you. No one else.
When you are trapped and it feels like there is only one option, you are probably wrong. There is always another way.
It is possible to befriend someone who belongs to another culture or nationality. Even if that culture's goal is to wipe you and your own off the face of the earth.
Things may not always appear as they seem. In reality, the things people say or do may have a very different intention than what you think.
Your view of reality is simply that. Yours. Reality is relative to the person experiencing it.
From the viewpoint of another person, your world doesn't exist.
When the masses are looking in one direction, out of fear, habit, or ego, look in another direction and see what they are missing.
Only a "perfect" soul can balance love & hatred, happiness & sorrow, violence & compassion, trauma & tenderness.
Luck might just be a way of describing that the "right" souls are looking over you.
Humor. If you can't laugh in the worst of circumstances, what's the point of being here?