Nobody can stop you but yourself

   While he was stumbling on the road and repeating  incomprehensible Words because of being over drunk, he suddenly ran into a sidewalk pole…Having his head cracked open, he started hurling insults to the pole…He backed off several steps after holding the bottle with his right hand, and threw more wine in his stomach…He stepped ahead cautiously, with a full determination to stumble, and hit the pole again…He took his shirt off and tore it up, uttering indecent words to the pole.

He backed off several steps again…then, moved forward with his bare chest, and with a well targeted action, he ran into the pole for the second time.

   People crowded around him, trying to help him, but he was too proud to accept. All that he wished was to get them participate in hurling insults to that pole which prevented passersby to cross over.

   That was not the only stoned or drunk, how many absent-minded persons believe that one can hinder their path and stop their progress. How many expressions like " what can we do? They are standing in our way!! They don't let us progress! Curse on them!" they do repeat.

   I imagine that the pole appeared to the stoned to be making its hands on its waist, standing firmly on the sidewalk and threatening him: " you can't go through there, do it if you can…" The focus on this idea was perhaps the reason for hitting it every time.

   I wished I had asked him…"how the pole managed to delude you into thinking that it could stop you?! Why couldn't you convince it that you were able to remove it?! or, heat it on the knee to get it bend its lofty back, or hit it with a stone on its head to gouge its enlightening eye.   In fact, the conflict between the stoned and the pole is a conflict of wills and a test of each one's domination over the other's mind.

  The difference between this stoned and the other passersby is the same as that between the subject and the object, in the sense that the passersby knew that the pole was an obstacle, but were aware enough that it could in no case prevent them from attaining their goal. They might commit a mistake and run into the pole once, but they believed that they had other options other than taking the shirt off, stepping back, and getting into another confrontation in the same manner. They could avoid the pole or get off the sidewalk and keep going their way…

   But that is not all; because the stoned will teach his children that the pole is an open enemy, and here is the historical evident…a torn shirt and a bloody head…Is there any other clearer evidence than this?! And this is the efficient way to reproduce generations of stoned people. If it keeps going like this, those generations will worship, fear, and hope in light poles, which is one of the reasons leading to  transforming good for nothings into idols, around which the stoned people turn and repeat their supplications to their hymns strings…"they will stop us…will prevent us…will stand in our way…"

   I would say, as a witness to history, that it was not the pole which made the stoned's mind go off, since the bottle of wine was his choice and his choice alone. It affected his thinking to the extent that he started thinking…"if I managed to pass and avoid this pole, how could I face all those stacked poles behind it along the way ?! He really felt confined in front of these poles which occupy the city to hinder him !!! and there is nothing he can do…Oh, bad luck !

   I heard people's applause and then regained my attention… The stoned backed off for the tenth time…and  then stepped ahead, but this time he managed to avoid the pole.. I got happy then sad… I was happy because he freed his mind and was able to pass ; but his words made me feel grieved…He looked behind him, telling the pole : "Thank you for listening to my appeal and getting out of my way" !!!

Written By: Wael Adel

Translated By: Zoulikha K