Sylvia's Journal

Why is it that things need to build up to a crisis before they can find resolution? I think it has to do with attention – only the most urgent matters tend to get attention – this is why we don’t fix a problem in our house until it causes greater damage. There is also the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

I have been a little more squeaky lately, was much too quiet until now. I work in a large and complex organization and most people have no time to pay attention to something/someone that is not making a noise. My urgency has become a few other people’s urgency. I am a little more hopeful now.

I drove down to Duxbury to attend Razia’s fundraiser, a community affair that gives one hope in the goodness of others. Razia had gotten straight off the plane from Kabul and was busy providing way too much food, as she tends to do, for the number of people present.

To avoid the rush hour I had come early and was mobilized to cut the melons into small pieces – not anything like Afghanistan’s melons but at least a hint at something utterly Afghan.

Some 60 people showed up to hear her speak, watch yet another inspiring video of her school and then two of us in the audience spoke about her school which we had seen in action. It was an intensely affirming and inspiring event and I am glad I made my third attempt to go there successfully.

It is a bit of a long drive home after a 14 hour day but worth it. I shortened the ride by eating chocolate and listening to a tale of the Bin Ladens told by his first wife and fourth son – a somewhat irritating but interesting peek into the private life of this century’s most reviled person. It reminds me of a quote from Nietzsche in Also Sprach Zarathustra, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”