Agha Bozorg and Making the Bed

Until the last years of his life, for as long as he was able, Agha Bozorg made his own bed first thing every morning. He called it “making it up.” Then he opened his bedroom window and took a deep breath. One day I asked, “Agha Bozorg, why won’t you let me or Father make your bed? It’s hard work, and you have to bend over. That can’t be good for you.” “I do it for myself,” he said. “When you make your bed each morning, you’ve completed your first duty of the day, and perhaps the easiest. It teaches you to do the others, too. “There won’t always be someone beside you to do things for you. It reminds me every day that I have to take the first step myself. “And when you come back to your room at night, tired from everything the day has brought, a neatly made bed is waiting for you. It gives you peace, almost as though it respects you. That is the respect you showed yourself.” My fellow Iranian, part of my own flesh, I’d give my life for a moment of your smile. Sometimes we shouldn’t wait for someone else or for help. Remember that we must begin with ourselves. Believe me, in doing so we honor ourselves first, and then our land and our king. It doesn’t matter what has happened or what we have done. It doesn’t even matter if, right up to today, nearly a year since our national uprising began, we have done nothing or stayed silent. What matters is taking a step from this moment on, however small, for our own sake. May you stand strong. Long live the Shah.