Do it now

In Al-Mukhtar magazine, based on Reader's Digest, which was published in Egypt before the 1967 war, I read an article written by an American journalist and I have never forgotten it. The journalist says: He received a nice letter from an old friend. A childhood friend he hasn't seen in thirty years. A childhood friend of the type with whom you used to share marbles, throw bombs at passers-by, and exchange stamps. Every one of us has an old friend like this. This speech put the journalist in a constant state of ecstasy. He placed it on the desk, and began to think about the letter he would respond with: They would recall memories of playing in the woods behind the school. Stealing children's magazines from their educated friend. Hanging a swing between two trees and trying to install an engine for a small racing car. First love in childhood and quarreling over her consent. etc. He spent time composing in his mind the paragraphs of the wonderful speech he was going to write. Every paragraph and every sentence. He wrote several versions, but they did not appeal to him, and this was not the amazing speech he had in mind. Days passed. Days became weeks. With time, the opportunity began to diminish and the possibility of sitting down to write diminished. Replying to the letter has become a nightmare or an unpaid debt. He began to wake up feeling tired and go to sleep after a long sleep. He became depressed and avoided entering his study room. Every day his mind became more distracted, to the point that he began cursing his friend and wishing he had not written to him. One day he returned home, and his wife - who knew about the problem - came and put a pen and paper in front of him, and said to him: “Sign.” He looked and saw that it was a typewritten letter addressed to his friend. It said: “I received your interesting letter and it made me very happy. We should meet to exchange memories. Thank you.” And there is a box to sign! His wife said: She wrote him this letter on a typewriter herself, and he just has to sign it and send it to his friend. He then touched her hand in gratitude and told her that she was a wonderful being. If it were not for her, he would never have sent the letter and would have been waiting for inspiration that would not come and a clear mood that would not come. It lifted a terrible burden from his shoulders. I remembered this story when I opened the folder called “Important Letters” in my email. I found a large number of letters that I thought needed a longer or more careful response. These are letters I have been putting off replying to (because they deserve more attention) and the result is that some of them have sat there for two years without a response, while I sometimes reply to letters within a minute of receiving them. If you were smart, you would find a neutral formula like the one used by the journalist's wife that works for everything. There are also letters that I do not respond to until years later, which include works that readers want my opinion on. This means that you will postpone responding until you have read the work and formed an opinion about it. These letters are thus doomed to wait a very long time. After a while you feel that you would be very silly if you responded now. There is another way to solve this problem, which is to damage the computer or infiltrate it with a virus. This is how all these letters are lost, and I do not feel any remorse, as the guilt is not my fault. I wanted to visit my relatives in a city. This journey is long overdue. As the days passed, it became more complex and difficult. Then my fear of being blamed for all this interruption increased, and so I entered a vicious circle of postponing travel and then regretting the postponement of travel. Then I was afraid to travel and postponed it again. Most likely we will meet only in the next world. The noble hadith says: (Beware of Hell, even if it is half a date), and the meaning is clear, which is that you should not be independent of what you are able to offer. Believe in what you have now, as it can make an impact. This applies to our article, with a difference of course. You cannot wait to write a letter from the Arab art of correspondence, but write to your friend simple words from the heart. Don't postpone visiting those you love. Do this now. Do not wait until you are wonderful, or give generously, or respond eloquently, for that moment will never come, and the longer it is delayed, the more difficult and impossible it seems Ahmed Khaled Tawfiq Published on December 31, 2014