M and I sit next to each other at work. An Iranian
immigrant (from the Lake Urmia region), he just
graduated from a nearby university. He struggles a
little with English, does not talk much but smiles
a lot. He's slender, friendly, energetic but not
aggressive. Everyone likes him.
One morning, we were both deep in heavy debugging
and another collegue came to take over his bug and
M was temperarily off-the-hook. Then he ran into a
different problem.
"Bug or no bug, you are going to suffer either way!"
I blurted out. And he smiled back, flashing his
perfect white teeth.
This reminded me of what Garrison Keilor said when
asked about his beliefs. "I believe in looking
reality straight in the eye, and deny it." was his
answer. If we have to go through sufferrings in
one form or another regardless. Might just as well
treat them as nothing special.
Later, I related the GK quote to M at the office
waterhole and we had a good laugh.
