And suddenly, just like that, hope became knowledge. I was going to win. It was just a matter of when.

There is only one sin. and that is theft... when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth.

and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back. she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. a mother. a person of consequence at last.

I returned to Kabul after a 27-year absence. I came away with some optimism but not as much as I had hoped for. The two major issues in Afghanistan are a lack of security outside Kabul (particularly in the south and east) and the powerful warlords ruling over the provinces with little or no allegiance to the central government. The other rapidly rising concern is the narcotic trade which, if not dealt with, may turn Afghanistan into another Bolivia or Colombia.

If culture was a house, then language was the key to the front door, [and] to all rooms inside.

Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.

Gone. Vanished. Nothing left. Nothing said.