ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Available for over a year

It was heartening to see the pictures of Peter and Barbie Reynolds arriving at Heathrow from Afghanistan on Saturday and being greeted by the family they feared they might never see again. The elderly couple had been imprisoned by the Taliban in February and separated and held in dire conditions until their release was negotiated with the help of Qatari mediators. Along with the relief and the joy at their return there were a few grumpy comments online – why had these do-gooders stayed in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s return, what had their release cost the British tax payer etc. To me it raised questions of motivation and faith. Peter and Barbie Reynolds had married in Afghanistan and fallen in love with its people and culture. Their organisation Rebuild had a mission to foster good relationships in homes and communities across the country. After the return of the Taliban they felt they could not desert the Afghan people in their hour of need. At one point they actually received a ‘certificate of appreciation’ for their work. It’s not clear what led to their arrest and they were never formally charged. Both suffered in prison: the conditions were squalid, the food scarce. Barbie had malnutrition, Peter was deprived of essential medicine. Perhaps they wondered whether they had been right to stay on. But in the plane on the way home Peter smiled and raised a glass to the camera. I was reminded of a phrase coined by the novelist Ernest Hemingway in which he wrote of courage as ‘grace under pressure’, by which he meant that rare ability to retain calm in extreme situations when most of us would blow up or melt down. In prison Barbie described herself as being in her element when she found she had an opportunity to give some teaching to her fellow prisoners. And that’s surely showing grace under pressure. Like most of us I am relieved at their return but I can’t help but have a little sympathy with the grumpy comments. People who genuinely do good whatever the cost to themselves are a huge challenge to the rest of us. Good people attract irritation because they insist on believing that there is a force for good in the world which will inevitably overcome evil. They are not afraid of defeat. They just battle on. This is a challenge to our familiar self-seeking and complacency. In a way such people are a nuisance not only to others but to themselves. But there would be less grace in the world without them, and less hope.