Provoked To Write
You could be writing for various reasons. You might be writing as part of a contract to fill a column on a specific day for which you get paid. Or you might be writing to get some publicity. Thirdly, you could be writing because you have some extra time trying to fill. You even could be writing because you love to write.
However, none of that, combined, worth when you write because you are provoked. Provoked by something you saw or something you heard that touches your feelings, your hearts and shakes you up. The down side is that there will be some people who will call you naà ¯ve or emotional. Naà ¯ve or emotional let it be, as long as you will deliver what your actual feelings are. People generally are touched by real honest feelings except for a few who pretend they are not.
I am an old fashioned, not very conservative (?) type of guy. I am not going to say more. You could consider me reactionary but please note I am not against freedom of choice. I believe everyone is entitled to his views, me included, to the way he chose to live and the way he chose to look.
On a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, on a marina by the beach where people are having fun as they should, I saw this man. He seems to be in his early forties, wearing all kinds of jewelry and tattoos. On the contrary, his wife and two lovely daughters who seem to be 8 and 10, are all well dressed and looking decent. Now some might say to me why don't you shut up and mind your business, which is fair if said. But I could not understand how the innocent two lovely daughters will compare the tattoo-free, jewelry-free mom to dad.
Am I an idiot stupid reactionary type of guy (I welcome such comments) or is the scene unusual?
Second scene in the same day same location is the scene of people staying in lines for the restrooms. I was surprised to see the men's room with no line and the women's room with a very long line. At some point in time I thought of doing something crazy but then worried about how it can be misunderstood. When I saw the long line for women to get to their toilet and the empty line for the men's toilet I thought of stopping the men for some 15 minutes and use both for women until the long women line get shorter, but then asked myself who I am to do that?
This let me think about the unfair distribution of rest rooms between men and women. Women needs more time in the toilet, so dividing toilets between men and women equally is unfair. I believe the women's toilet should accommodate more women than the men's toilet accommodate men.
Finally, here is another male-female observation. I noticed women are honest and spontaneous in expressing their feelings more than men especially in a woman-to-woman situation. If a woman is affected by the other woman's talk, she will express her feelings immediately either by tears or a hug or a cry. I just wish it was true in a woman-to-man situation.
Hamad S Alomar
Riyadh
