Apr 05 2008
Afghan Reflections — Luck
Fom time to time I will offer vignettes written duiring my sojourn in Kabul in 2005. Today the selection is about luck.
Afghanistan is a land of superstition, mysticism, and luck. Let me give an example of luck. I drove to the headquarters of an Afghan official ad whenI arrived I removed the body armor that I was wearing before going into his building. Incidentally, during the Soviet occupation, the bulding served as the headquarters for the Soviet KGB in Afghanistan.
To do so I took off my glasses and pulled the armor over my head, placing my glasses on top of the armored SUV in advance. I followed the same procedure on my return to the vehicle. When I arrived at my fortified compound fifteen minutes later after negotiating speed bumps, sharp turns, traffic cutting from one lane to the other, I realized too late that I had left the glasses on the roof of the vehicle. I leaped from the vehicle, looked on the roof and discovered the glasses undisturbed where I had placed them. How is that for luck?
Later, when I recounted the incident to my Sufi friend, he offered the following quote from the Sufi Saidi: A grain of merit is better than tons of everything else, but a grain of luck is better than tons of merit.
