WHATEVER THEY HAVE?!
by Anis Mansour

Following is part of an article written by famous journalist, man of letters and travel books author of worldwide fame Anis Mansour. He wrote:
Most human relationships are indefinite. There is no clear-cut opinion concerning these intricate bonds between people: man-man relations or woman-woman relations, and the most sophisticated of them all are those man-woman relations.

Relations between people can never be as simple and clear as that between one brick and the other in a wall, or between trees in a garden or animals in a fold. Daily experience with whom we work or live attests to that. Consider the effort exerted to make clear the most trivial wishes, the time wasted to explain a good intention and the infuriation suffered to obtain a "daily license of good conduct?!!

This obscurity in human relationships is to blame for increasing human problems, so much so that human development is not the outcome of solving problems, but rather complicating them and postponing their solutions. However, mankind persists and its persistence does not mean that we have solved our problems but it means a kind of development, a kind of postponement to providing solutions to more complicated problems.

Most human relationships can be described in a single word, like saying, love, marriage, life and death. But let's explain these words, then dream of the day we can all agree on a single definition of them.

There have always been problems, there has always been our long-cherished dream to understand them and reach a consensus as to their solution.

For instance, there is a woman who wishes to get married. Once married, she no longer wishes to continue being so. Now why did she choose to get married in the first place? She did not; rather, society did.

A woman never chooses marriage but only a husband. And choosing him, she opts for, not the best, but the man "closest" to her and to her circumstances. She can not go in quest of "Mr. Perfect" throughout all continents. And if she can, she will need an eagle's eye to find him. She may find him, but he may not find her, nor even want her.

Therefore, a woman chooses he who is closest to her "hand, eye, and surroundings". And since this choice takes place in an uncommon psychological conditions, it is governed by emotions which render the mind in confusion.

This is why, there is nothing particularly odd to find people staring at many couples, citing the proverb, "What brings the opposite ends together?" What brings the beauty together with the beast? What attracts one to the other? These are mind questions, but the situation itself is not. It is purely sentimental that evokes from this "heated" ambiguity, or if you like, "ambiguous" heat. Choice and agreement have taken place in dusk, in twilight.

It is that strange warning that precedes any choice, that makes the choice inaccurate. A society is man-made. Therefore, a man-made society glorifies man and puts him in a better position... even after death. The Pharaonic papyrus known as "The Book of the Dead" worshipped the god Osiris asking all other gods, men and women, to follow his regenerated masculinity and youth. Even after a woman has invaded the field of work, she is still asking to play her role next to man and still this is the advice of her parents.

Reading the message of Marie Antoinnette's father to her husband-to-be, one may find the following:

"We have taught her to love you, to be devoted to you, to share you all your dreams and aims, to be all yours in sickness and in health. You are her fate, Sir!"

In Marie Antoinnette's message to her sister, she states:

"Kings' daughters are destined to live in the four corners of the world. My marriage is a kind of exile. Our sister who lives in Napoli is justified to say that we threw her in the sea, but I will fold my letter asking you to keep my secret.

Even Kings' daughters are considered presents to men, even if the present herself refuses to be a present and refuses the one she is presented to. But she has to accept her fate at the end."

To sum it up, man is her ultimate master and the jewel of her crown. Although man in all ages prefers a headless woman so as not to put either the jewel or the crown on her head!!

A man does not know that a woman receives a lot of presents on the occasion of her marriage or her desire to get married or her aversion to marriage.

The most important present is the advice of all her female relatives to succeed at any rate, which means a woman is required to succeed. This determination to succeed makes her neglect problems, consequently, determination becomes long strong feathers in her hands helping her to fly over the earth.

Woman's determination to succeed does not find either the same determination on the part of man, or even a determination to give her the chance to succeed, as if marriage is based on one side: that is, a woman's part.

The theme still dominates films and novels: they all end happily, that is to say, by marriage. This means that marriage is the knot of all the white threads of an elegant white dress and a veil in an unforgetful night where everything dances with music, singing "Here comes the beautiful bride".

While the real beginning of this relation between a man and a woman is marriage, marriage is the beginning of many hot obscure relations which people do not have time to make clear neither to man nor to woman.

In spite of lack of clarity, the most important and widespread social event is marriage. The persistence of this social phenomenon does not prove it is clear, rather life keeps going on in spite of many ambiguous things.

Most people do not know how these papers or this ink are made? Nor how the eyes function? Nor how the mind thinks? In spite of all this, everything goes on and is recurring for ever. All what a woman can do, when she tries to rebel against one of the social situations, is to transfer to another close solution. As if she moves from one seat to the next. In fact she is moving but not transferring or it is better to say: She is swinging but not moving.

Wonder about the 20th century Princesses getting married!!

The Princesses of Britain, Holland, Greece, Denmark and Sweden have chosen their men, regardless of religion, rank or age. The Royal Families considered this attitude a serious rebellion, although it is no more than an elegant rebellion .. a magnificent rebellion.

Absolutely like a Prince refusing to ride a Cadillac, preferring a Mercedes, announcing that he is a People Prince. He is not against magnificence, but only against its highest degrees.

He accepts at the same time another degree of magnificence that is considered high as well. One may wonder what have the Princesses chosen? Each one has chosen a higher and richer marital life, full of all the ambiguous aspects of human life like that of driver, porter or butcher. They are the same hot intricate bonds between those who live in a basement or those who live in a pent-house.

Andre Shedeed, the Arab writer, describes a princess in her play "Barnees El Masria", saying: "I hate these walls that isolate me from the world. I hate this golden ceiling. I hate these marble pillars. All these golden stuff paralyze my thinking. I'm isolated from both earth and sky... I'm exiled. I believe these palaces are nothing but falsehood". Really Princesses are in prison(s)?!!

As regards young people attitude, rapidly they get married and rapidly they get divorced. This attitude can not be described as being a simplification of marriage and divorce steps, but it is a simplification of the way marriage and divorce problems are handled. According to them, the simplest way to solve a problem is to ignore and disregard it, and then yield to caprices.