by Saeed Amirian

On a typical, lazy, and damp Saturday afternoon, I had nothing to do after my ritual mid-day nap. So I decided to challenge my vocabulary by solving a crossword puzzle (thinking it would be easy, big mistake). After a while I got stuck, naturally. Specifically a vertical three-letter word, “the most important thing in your life.” None of my answers would fit the puzzle, so I decided to “ask a friend.” Not just one, but a bunch of them on a Saturday night outing. After a few drinks, I was asked if I had any juicy topics of discussion (I usually do). So I put the question on the table: “three letters, ‘the most important thing in your life’.” With the crossword pu

zzle in hand, I waited as everyone pondered their options to see what answer fit best. You’d be surprised how many different answers we got, one guy even had the chutzpah (nerve) to take out his pocket Bible (his iPhone) to ask Miss Know-It-All (Siri) to list all three-letter words ever created in every language! From fun words, “hug”, “pot”, “sin”, “sex”, emotions, “mom”, “dad”, “luv”, hobbies, “art”, “eat”, “fun”, and other three-letter words “ace”, “ego”, “nap” (my favorite), and “law”. From a pair of newlywed lovebirds who just came back from their “mini-moon” (these days that comes before the honeymoon), “him” and “her.” None fitted. Disappointed, I put the crossword puzzle back in my coat pocket and participated in ordering dessert. On the way back home in the car with my wife driving, I had plenty of time to dwell on what the three-letter word was.

Suddenly I had an epiphany

“Oh my God,” I scared my wife.

“You scared me,  what happened ??” She asked in a frightened voice.

“I got it”,” I said. I took out the puzzle and filled in the missing word in the center of the puzzle, “G-O-D.”

In answering the question, everybody picked the word that was so important and meant the world to them. For the lawyer it was ace, ego, law, win, for the artist it was art, air, and pen, to children it was mom and dad, and for “earthly-pleasures-seekers,” it was eat, sin, hug, and sex. I turned to my wife and asked, “wasn’t that ironic that none of us who pat ourselves on the back for being so smart, educated, well-informed, and cool, thought of the most obvious three-letter word in the world, it did not even cross our minds.

Now I was on a roll, “how can we conduct our everyday lives, our relationships, our decisions on business, family, or friendship without having our creator’s name (in any language) in our everyday thoughts? Shouldn’t this three-letter word be on the tip of our tongues at any given time? Be our guide to a more meaningful and fulfilling life?”

My wife had it, “come on, Saeed Joon. It’s only a crossword puzzle, give it up, you are reading too much into it.”

“Am I?”

In solving the puzzle of our lives, we certainly could use the guidance from the divine force.