Our Gal in Kabul

Our daughter Elizabeth is going to Kabul, to sort out the mess there.

With a degree in international relations and economics, she’s been in Jordan since last summer, working at Questscope, a humanitarian non-governmental organization. Now she’s accepted a job (program development officer) with a different one, called ACTED, in Kabul, Afghanistan.

We’ve often been asked if we were worried by Elizabeth’s being in the Middle East. We visited her in Jordan, and it’s a perfectly normal country. But Afghanistan – not so much. (ACTED’s website memorializes a staffer who was assassinated). Nevertheless my wife and I gave Elizabeth our blessing. (She’ll be living and working in a compound, reasonably secure we’re told.)

Edith Hamilton wrote of the ancient Greek: “Life for him was an adventure, perilous indeed, but men are not made for safe havens. The fullness of life is in the hazards of life.” And I said to Elizabeth what I’ve often said on my blog – there’s really no such thing as being safe. One can get hit by a car crossing the street, or by lightning, or a thousand other dangers. If we took them all to heart, we’d never get out of bed (and 600 Americans die annually falling out of bed). And of course, in the end, nobody gets out alive (so far).

All achievement entails risk. We are pleased to have brought into the world a woman with the grit, courage, and vision to undertake this mission. Of course she won’t sort out all Afghanistan’s problems. But I’m confident she will do good there.