Permission v. Forgiveness

A smart man once said, "Its easier to ask forgiveness than permission." He was probably talking about relations with his wife, but his statement applies to many situations, particularly in Egypt.

This morning I set out with two visiting friends and a cycling friend to go to the Olympic Stadium for a track workout. Meg had been an official at a track meet last month where we discovered this track. It's a reasonably well maintained all-season track, with all the expected markings on it. Perfect for running my (http://trackytuesday.blogspot.com) workout.

I tried to do this last week, but despite the fact that the gate was open, I made the mistake of asking someone when it opened. (They said 10am, which doesn't meet my needs.) I turned around and did my workout in the desert.

Today, we drove up and walked in with the plan of, "act like you're supposed to be here and no one will stop you." It totally worked. There was a womens track team just starting their "practice" but we ran anyway. A couple times I thought their coach was going to say something to us, but he was just getting ready to talk to his athletes. On the way out, there was a security guard, but there's no problem leaving.

I'm not sure we'll be able to do this indefinitely. Sooner or later someone might get up the guts to confront us. But for now: forgiveness: 1. Permission: 0.

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