John Simpson, the news reporter seen mostly on the BBC, in his autobiography describes his trip to Afghanistan at the height of the trouble in that country.
It was difficult and, particularly in view of the fact that their final destination was the capital, Kabul, highly dangerous. Reporters and cameramen and such who habitually risk their lives under such conditions, according to Simpson, tend to be superstitious about omens and lucky charms and the like.
He was slightly unnerved himself by an incident that occurred just as he was starting out on the Kabul expedition: the driver of their car accidentally caused the car to jerk backwards causing the glove compartment to open and a book to fall our and land on Simpson’s lap. The title of the book was ‘Kabul Catastophe’!
“if someone was trying to give me a message then this was undoubtedly it,” wrote Simpson. He chose to ignore the omen and since, in the end, he survived the expedition intact and even came back with material that would certainly do his career no harm, he thought the omen had been nonsense.
Actually, it was not. He just did not understand what it had meant, and did not recognise that the catastrophe foretold had, in truth, happened.
“……our Kabul Catastrophe had turned into an extraordinary …… Kabul escape,” Simpson writes. “I would never, I promised myself, enter a serious undertaking so lightly again. And I would never pay attention to omens either.”
The quote describes the real Kabul Catastrophe. There are 2 parts to the catastrophe:
- Simpson has developed a more serious attitude to his work and to aspect of his life.
- he has decided to ignore omens.
To explain:
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Heavy emotionalism is bad news. It is a major cause of mental and physical illness. One should aim in life always to ‘lighten up’, always to find ways to take things LESS seriously. The heavy emotionalism of taking things seriously intensified the experience of pain and of both physical and mental distress. Heavy emotionalism stresses a person and increases risk of heart problems and increases one’s susceptibility to illnesses of all kinds (through, among other things, its deleterious effect on the immune system), and is a factor which encourages depression and anxiety.
So, it was a catastrophe for Simpson to decide to take things more seriously. -
That omen, as I have shown, was correct. The message given by the accident with the book did mean something, the portent came true, and it was bad news for Simpson. If Simpson had heeded the omen it would have saved him from a damaging downturn in his mental attitude. So, in choosing to ignore omens he is opening the way to further ‘catastrophes’ which could be avoided.
Note too: Simpson misinterpreted the omen and thus concluded that it had been wrong. But he did not need to understand it ---- if he had just trusted that clear warning he could have avoided the catastrophe.
I wonder if members of this forum ever get experiences similar to that of Simpson but just think it is a funny coincidence and ignore it.