Red Rose On A Concrete Wall!

An unclear mind is a blessing to me, nevertheless … a curse too. After a considerable period of time spent fruitlessly in Jordan I am home, again. For the first time in a very long time it doesn’t feel strange, I find myself unconcerned with the crazy life of people around me, the rocky roads of East Jerusalem neglected for years by the racist municipality no longer bother me, strangely! Even the hate crimes committed against Arab citizens of the holy city resulting in the death of one man and injuring several others seemed -shamefully- expected and oddly old news.
Perhaps my mind is fed-up with all the criticism of my city that my heart poured continuously during my last stay here and decided that it was better to just enjoy whatever this city has become, and filter in the beauty that it offers and drive out the unwanted depressing scenes that whatever this city has become is quite generous with, to say the least.

It has been two days, lots of doctors and lots of movement. On my first day I saw a few doctors that seemed to be intrigued by my medical case yet what I thought grew old came back to surprise me once again and that is their own surprise at how fluent my English is, and how I managed to understand thoroughly –in medical terms- the causes and effects of my illness … poor doctors, they have no idea of the time I spend doing what they were supposed to do, too bad for them, too bad for me hehe.

Being a Palestinian away from home is a little like Nietzsche on pills, all the madness is suppressed by whatever you are doing during your days, but it takes a little less concentration, missing out on a couple of pills and one experience and there you are … yes, welcome home, you are on Qalandya Checkpoint! My cousin and I were driving to Ramallah yesterday and while we were stuck in the unbearable traffic watching volunteers from the Qalandya refugee camp wearing nice reflective yellow vests steering the traffic into discontinuous motion I thought to myself:”wow, you gotta love their spirit, the economy is flipped up and corruption has done its job leaving them with non and yet here they are making good use of their time and energy to help people out … funny how only those who lived the narrow roads can recognize and react to someone in a narrow one”, suddenly the good Samaritans took of their vests and ran to the sides of the road, an army patrol was passing by and coming for them, why? Those are Palestinians doing something good for Palestinians, in case you have been living on a different planet or a fan of Jerry Springer then you should by now know that this is by some people’s standards … Dangerous! A few stones from our right, and a couple of rubber bullets from my left, a scream and a shout, a curse so well stated that for a second I wanted to write it down! A few more minutes of stone/rubber bullet cross-fire and we were on our way to Ramallah, Nietzsche is in the house, again haha!

Valentine’s Day, the least significant day of the year. Even when in a relationship unfortunate events added to the fact that I never had the chance to celebrate it with a person I loved romantically that is, yesterday was not any different unless thinking how it could have been is considered remotely a proper celebration, Valentine ’s Day in Palestine is still a different story waiting to be told a red rose on a concrete wall, hugs and kisses among female Israeli soldiers behind bullet proof glass sheets and Palestinian Romeos waiting on them nervously so they can get along with it and get to see their Joliettes … only in Palestine. Women are always said to be unpredictable and come with too many buttons to operate leaving men signing petitions that they should come with manuals and illustrative diagrams … rubbish, all a woman wants or needs is for a man to put a smile on her face and an identical one in her heart, now the whats and hows on what follows can quite frankly become the best selling manual ever known to humanity. Being the conceded man that I am, I hereby publicly say that I am gifted and my unmatchable gift is to know when a girl/woman is happy and when she is not and besides basing my judgment on a slap to the face when angry or a kiss on the cheek when happy I base them on purely scientific and humanitarian observations of the countless number of women I have interacted with and for some odd reason decided I was the right person to spill out their hearts burdens to … lucky me, I know! The easiest of all were the Russian nurses at the blood lab I went to this morning, now those Russian ladies are a tricky lot indeed, you have to keep open eyes and sharp ears to know when they suddenly switched from racing rants in Russian to giving you a two-word order in Hebrew, now Russian and Hebrew are two completely different languages but those fine needle-masters are too good at making them sound the same that making a manual on that would probably make the second best-selling manual in the region, leaving the “dealing with a woman’s reactions manual” undisputed in first place. Now I know and to a degree of medical, scientific, and deadly certainty that the lady at the reception was unhappy, and the three Russian ranting machines in the test room where in fact very happy, it’s a very simple observation … now I don’t know Russian except for a few words I picked up during a trip to Sharm Al-Sheikh from the working Egyptians there (not a joke), but the way those ladies spoke to each other and the looks on their faces told me all about their Valentine’s Day 2011 experience, you do not need a rocket scientist, the love guru or even a manual to tell you when someone is high on happiness or cursing bad choice and men that they never had under their breaths, blessed are those who feel that happiness but little do they know.

A very very very dear friend of mine got engaged recently; a friend that always gave me the purest yet sometimes the harshest advice on love and relationships who taught me a lot about life and inspired me in so many ways it would require a different blog post to attempt and suffice her unbounded kindness and guidance to me, I wish he nothing short of the very best and all the success and brilliance that her heart desires and happiness her soul requests in the days to come, cheers!

The best friends I have now, were probably the most I disliked in middle school … Mohammad Bakri and Khalil Salhab, you turned out to be two of the most caring friends I have and gave me unconditional support when I needed it … on that, a different blog post will have to do! Thank you.

In conclusion, only three things matter in life; Football (Not American football, the real FOOTball), Tango, and love and the only thing in common between them is Kicking! In football you have to kick some balls, when you Tango you have to kick some heels, and when you love … you certainly need to kick some fears … Good night :)