ONE DAY THE DESERT WILL REPAY YOU

Kirzai needed to cross the desert. He had only so much water. There was a whirlwind in the desert. He entered it and found an old man, beside a camel, dying from thirst.
The old man opened his eyes, looked at Kirzai intently for a moment and then said in a hoarse whisper: "Is it ... you?"
Karzai laughed and shook his head.
‘What, don’t tell me you know who I am? Has my fame spread to the desert of Syr Daya? But you, old man, who are you?”

The old man said nothing.
Karzai gave him his water. Now he could not cross the desert and would have to go a different way. But he didnt worry. He just did what he needed to do.
The old man drank and said “One day, the desert will repay you.”

Years passed. Karzai was an old man now. He had to cross the desert. A whirlwind came upon him. He began to die of thirst.
Just then, a young man appeared. Karzai peered through the whirlwind. Could it be himself, 30 years younger?
“Is it…you?” Kirzai asked.
‘What, don’t tell me you know who I am? Has my fame spread to the desert of Syr Daya? But you, old man, who are you?” the young man said.

Karzai searched his memory. What to tell the young man. There was so much he would like to say. He would have wished to speak to the young man of many things, but could only find these words:
"One day the desert will repay you."


From "THE FEAR OF THE FUTURE AND THE HABIT OF WORRYING" by Jacob Needleman

Gathered and condensed from "Alive on All Channels"