Carry It Forward: The Kite Runner

" 'Let me take you home with me. I can find you a good doctor. They're coming up with new treatments all the time. There are new drugs and experimental treatments, we could enroll you in one...' I was rambling and I knew it. But it was better than crying, which I was probably going to do anyway.
He let out a chuff of laughter, revealed missing lower incisors. It was the most tired laughter I'd ever heard. 'I see America has infused you with the optimism that has made her so great. That's very good. We're a melancholic people, we Afghans, aren't we? Often, we wallow too much in ghamkhori and self-pity. We give in to loss, to suffering, accept it as a fact of life, even see it as necessary. Zendagi migzara, we say, life goes on. But I am not surrendering to fate here, I am being pragmatic. I have seen several good doctors here and they have given the same answer. I trust them and believe them. There is such a thing as God's will.' "
-The Kite Runner, 201


This passage from the Kite Runner touches a level of acceptance. Religious or not, God's will/life itself, will win in the end. It is up to each individual to understand when to 'give in' or to be 'pragmatic.'
I want to apply this concept to my life in not only health related instances, but in the way I view life at all times. I don't always have to put up a fight. Amir was desperate to figure out a way to heal Rahim Khan leaving him frazzled and distraught; Rahim Khan has faced his fate and may continue the rest of his life in relative peace as he ties up lose ends. When I can't overcome an issue in my life, I will re-evaluate it in a framework of will this be for the best?
If I don't do well at a debate tournament, the way I would mull over it would be to ask how I can make this work out for me in the future? It's too late to do well at this tournament, but maybe, I can use the oppurtunity of not debating to watch some of the top debaters in the country. Maybe I can learn. Maybe the reason I didn't do well lies in something I won't be able to fix until I trust the judges in their decision and recognize my loss. The joy from a debate tournament in Iowa, where I do well, will be short lived compared to a tournament in Michigan, where I was horrible, but understand and accept why I did poorly... Moments in time fade and are restricted to that moment, getting through the harder times is when you make the good times great in the future.


THERE IS A PART OF LIFE THAT IS INEVITABLE;

"The cry of birth, the rise of sun, the waning of the moon,
the pass of breath, the still of death, will come to all too soon,
but life imparts a strength of force, which we cannot explain,
but in the order of this chaos, some things will never change "

-Shawn Phillips

TRUST & ACCEPTANCE CAN BE THE GREATEST PALLIATIVES - KNOWING THE RIGHT THING TO OCCUR, WILL IN THE END.