Do or do not - Syrian style

My grandfather once told me, "Do or do not - أفعل أو لا تفعل.". I've tended to follow that rule throughout my life and it has given me mixed results in terms of what I'd liked to have happened, but at least I avoided the agony of being indecisive. I once had the misfortune of sharing a flat with a friend of a friend who happened to be Syrian. This guy was a genius in playing the guitar in the flamenco style but also utterly and completely annoying. He had a picture of himself on his own phone, posing with a guitar while staring melodramatically upwards. My cousin, whose room I had taken over, failed to warn me of the interesting character traits of this person. The night I moved in he had knocked on my door and asked me a favour. I said of course, what is it? He asked me to rub a cream on his back as he has a back condition. I agreed, and there I was in a dark room lit by the glare of my computer screen, rubbing cream on this guy's back when, 24 hours earlier, I had been happy in my life, didn't know this person and my future just seemed so bright and happy.

One thing this person loved to have was a dilemma. On one night out where he unfortunately joined me, I spent the entire evening listening to his love story with some Japanese girl he met, how he loved her utterly but that he left her because his parents would never accept her. Also about how much he loved music but his parents would never let him follow his dream to be a musician. Oh, his parents are filthy rich by the way, old school Damascus Shwam. He kept going on and on, and I nodded and pretended to be interested. Finally, he asked me what I thought. I told him, "do or do not. The pain you are suffering is because you have not made a decision. If you make a decision, stick with it and two thirds of your agony will be wiped out". He blinked at me confusedly, "That's a very direct answer". I said yes, it was. I then didn't speak to him for the rest of the evening and ignored him from then on. Life is too short. Follow your instinct and rely on Allah, if something will work out it will even if you don't want it to, and if it won't work out then it won't even if you want it to.

ما كان ليصيبك ما أخطأك و ما كان ليخطأك ما أصابك

What hits you would never have missed you and what missed you would never have hit you