The Impossible Dream

The war was not going so well. I laughed. Understatement of the century.

The Syrian offensive was repelled the day before, and the Israeli Air Force had just seized control of the Jordanian border crossing. Even though the Saudi Arabian artillery were punching holes in the Israeli armor in the South, the Israeli counter attack through southern Lebanon was as unexpected as it was catastrophic. I couldn't help admiring the Israelis... even faced with such overwhelming odds, they were still putting up an impressive fight. Their ace in the hole was their Air Force, but the combined force of the Iraqi, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian Air Forces prevented Israeli air superiority. Which didn't stop them making massive gains during the first four days of the war. However, Israeli economy can't sustain a prolonged armed conflict, and this is where we had the advantage if we could draw out the war.

But it was hard to see the advantage from where I was standing.

Sinai shares Israel's longest land border, which is why we took the brunt of their force. Which was just as well, seeing as there was an element of poetical irony that we were back here fighting our age-old enemy in the same bunkers we fought them from not that long ago. Not that my squad gives a hoot about poetical irony, as they drop like flies, one by one, bleeding out around me while I persist, fueled with rage and a thirst for revenge.

Prospects of survival were bleak.

The Libyan regiment which was our back-up was reassigned at the last minute to guard the supply lines. There was no way any special forces would be spared to help us, seeing as most of them were assigned to sabotage targets behind enemy lines... mostly nuclear missile launch facilities. The Air Force was no good either... they had bigger worries than a tank escort unit which lost their tank and had to take cover in an old warehouse. Most of my squad was down, and I'd already accepted the fact that I wasn't getting out of this one.

I looked at my remaining squad members as we ducked behind some old crates, and I nodded. There was a look of mutual understanding. We would come out guns blazing. I held up three fingers... then two- one.
"ALLAHU AKBAR" someone screamed.
I looked around me... it wasn't my squad. Confused, I gestured at them to emerge from cover anyway. We would have revenge. We would kill...
Bedouins?
I couldn't believe my eyes. "I must be delirious from lack of food and sleep", I thought. But sure enough, just as I emptied my first clip and ducked into cover to reload, one of them screamed "Allahu Akbar!" again. Israelis make it a point not to do that. What the hell is going on?

There was a sudden explosion nearby, and I was knocked into the concrete barrier I was taking cover behind. Even though my head was bleeding freely, the knock snapped me out of it. I understood... I'd been delirious alright.

Battlefield trauma has this fun little effect sometimes where it can make you delirious. Suddenly I became aware that there was no Syrian offensive. There was no Iraqi-Egyptian Air force. There was neither Saudi Arabian Artillery nor Libyan regiments. And we weren't fighting Israelis... In fact, at that point I was ironically kind of fighting for Israeli national security as I gunned down Bedouins in Sinai near the Israeli border. Moreover, I was completely on my own after the Bedouin attack on the backwater security checkpoint I was assigned to completely wiped out my unit... I'd been giving silent commands to ghosts for God knows how long.

I couldn't bear the thought that I was dying there alone to indirectly protect my real enemy, so my brain made up this elaborate, alternate reality to convince me that my death meant something. I spat, reloaded, and emerged from cover.

As I stood there, bitterly channeling my rage through the painfully inferior AK-47 that was all my government could afford me, I braced myself for a lonely, forgotten death in a far away outpost no one would ever remember. I  furiously blinked tears of rage from my eyes... A rage that I was no longer able to contain.

Impossible dreams are just that... they're impossible. And Arab unity is an impossible dream.

***

Growing up in the Middle East is not easy. We are nothing short of indestructible testaments to sheer human will to survive...

We receive no healthcare.
We eat carcinogenic, expired foods.
We live in slums (well, 90% of us do).
We receive little or no education.
We get hunted down by our own police forces like rabid dogs.
We also get hunted down by our own militaries like rabid dogs.
Daily bombings are a common nuisance.
Highway men are an accepted reality.
And to top it all, when we come of age, we (at least the males) ironically get drafted into the military to help the police kill our own brothers and sisters (sometimes literally) for political reasons the military is supposed to transcend.

And yet we survive to fight another day. I would say "live" another day, if there was any actual living involved. We just fight. Our lives are like chains of small fights in a sadistic video game, leading up to the boss fight at the end -namely cancer or liver failure from the genetically modified crap we eat- which we end up losing because of the non-existent healthcare plans. Suicide bombings are an alien concept to the west because they have decent lives and a lot to lose... But here, suffice to say that more than a few people would choose to blow themselves up if the payoff is a small plot of land in a rural village where they hope their families would live in relative comfort.

Forgive me the history lesson, but with that background in mind, it's easy to see how Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser was so popular in the 1960s. Though I highly disagree with his methods, his reign marked the closest we got to having a unified Arab State and any sort of national pride. Pan-Arabism had always been a dream following the decolonization of the Arab world after World War II, but it wasn't until he was made president of Egypt that we saw the brief union between Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic. Though he committed most of the Egyptian Air Force to an inconsequential civil war in Yemen which caused us to suffer a humiliating defeat in the Six-Day War with Israel; and he destroyed the Egyptian economy through a series of decisions we are still paying for until this day, he was a patriot and a born leader whose people would follow him to hell and back.

I mentally sigh when I remember the story of one of the wars Abdel Nasser stupidly got us into. In 1956, as retaliation against Britain withdrawing their offer to help build the Aswan Dam, he illegally nationalized the Suez Canal -before its contract's maturity date- while the masses cheered, not knowing that this would bring about a tripartite invasion of Egypt... Whereupon in a touching and unforgettable act of solidarity, when the Egyptian "Voice of the Arabs" radio station -which broadcast daily to several Arab countries- fell silent following an air raid, the Damascus Radio famously broadcast "From Damascus, this is Cairo"... It makes me irrationally angry that now when we read in the newspapers about the thousands and thousands of Syrians living in a wasteland that was all but part of Egypt one day, we shrug and flip to the sports section... Not for cynicism or lack of empathy, but rather because we can do absolutely nothing about it. It's very obvious that brute force is not going to solve the issue, and its not like sending the Egyptian Army there would do any good... In fact, judging by Egypt's abysmal state of affairs, it would make matters a lot worse. Besides, at this point -as much as it pains me to say it- it actually makes more sense to support Assad as he is the only hope for a unified Syria. Egyptians have seen what a power vacuum can do to a country, and its not that much better than a civil war.

But I'm getting side-tracked.

Unlike most Egyptian young adult males, I was not drafted into the Egyptian military because conscription is only obligatory if you have a brother... for some reason. However, I've heard the stories, and I'll tell you now that they can blab all they want about it being the most advanced fighting force in Africa (which is not saying much) and the biggest army in Africa (also not saying much) and the shield that guards the realms of men (Game of Thrones reference) with huge phallic-shaped swords that reflect pleasantly on the size of our collective manhood (overcompensation joke), it is still a running joke in Egypt how we use our "top-notch" F-16s (which are getting completely retired from the US Air Force by 2025, by the way) to draw hearts in the sky on the Armed Forces Day as crazed fanatics on the ground wave their posters of our "beloved" Field Marshal. But it's OK, we're putting the M1A1 Abrams tanks to good use as they reign supreme against... unarmed protesters. Well, that's not fair... They're also used to protect the military-owned factories which were originally built to produce ammunition and weapons but which now produce consumer goods and electronics. Because who needs assault rifles, right? Let's just use the ones we already have and sell washing machines instead to pad the top military brass's pockets.

It truly paints a beautiful picture of our guardians, doesn't it?

We grow up here knowing that Zionists are the enemy. Which don't get me wrong, they are... but are they the most pressing concern? Did Zionists shoot up the Cairo University campus, killing tens of students under the pretext that they are "terrorists"? The army's propaganda machine must be a force to be reckoned with, if anyone's actually buying this. Don't get me wrong, I believe that military rule is necessary in Egypt, for the same reason why I think Assad is a necessary evil for Syria. Historically, we've always been ruled by the military and it's the only thing we understand. But I am never going to come to terms with our blatant disregard for human lives for political reasons.

The Egyptian Army once gave Israel pause, because it wasn't just the Egyptian Army... It was an Arab army. Israeli incursions into the Gaza strip were unheard-of. Gaza was wholeheartedly supported by the Egyptian population, and it was reflected in our media. To hear it now, you'd think the Palestinian people are the enemy and that they should be gunned down on sight. What was once the only thing that kept the IDF in check is now running the IDF's errands in Sinai like faithful lapdogs, dispatching "terrorists" by bombing their houses in acts of savagery vaguely reminiscent of the IDF's own practices.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, except that I'm sick and tired of the hypocrisy. I'm sick and tired of being expendable. I'm sick and tired of being treated like a piece of gum stuck on someone's shoe... in my own country, no less. I dream of the day that Arabs unite. I dream of the day we stop needing visas to go to other Arab countries. I dream of the day we have one currency. I dream of the day Saudi Arabia finances Somalian and Yemeni healthcare and development projects. I dream of the day Kuwaiti funds pay for housing displaced Syrians. I dream of the day Oman funds the construction of nuclear/solar power plants to make the Arab world less dependent on fossil fuels; and finally, No one wants war... But if you want peace, you must prepare for war, and I dream of the day Egyptians, Syrians, Libyans, Iraqis, ARABS, mass on the Israeli borders to hold joint military excercises, finally posing a credible enough threat for the Israeli high command to rethink their policies against unarmed Palestinian children whose only fault was being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In short, I have an impossible dream.

Addio, Occhi Bellissimi

I'm gonna make this really simple for you guys; I am cheesy. I adore cheese in all shapes, colors and sizes, metaphorically, literally and figuratively. If you like to think of yourself as a world-weary, cynical being who is incapable of responding to human emotions, save your time and close this window. But if you decide to read anyway, be warned that this is cheese galore. What you are about to do is jump head-first into a tub of cheese and splash around in it, and no matter how many times I try to rephrase that to make it sound bad I fail.

You have been warned.

Based very loosely on a true story.You're free to interpret which parts are true, but I'm not responsible for what you read into it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit

He woke up at 6 AM; had to wrestle with his bag's zipper -which he could swear he'd packed last night- for a whole fifteen minutes; looked for his keys for another twenty minutes only to find them balled up in one of his socks and stuffed deep inside the bag he'd just zipped up; cursed colorfully while hopping around on one leg because he'd been trying to force the other into a pair of jeans which he soon came to realize was his hoodie. Long story short, he was late. He had an hour to somehow check out of the hotel, rush out into the hustle and bustle that is New York City, hail a cab and get to the station before the train left, which of course it did... only 2 minutes before he reached the platform.

Perfect. Now what? he'd just missed the last train out of Grand Central Station for another seven hours, because apparently specifically his train line had to undergo maintenance. It was no good brooding over it, but he was screwed. He had no idea what to do with three large bags and a very important business meeting that he was now definitely going to miss. It made no logistical sense to take a cab back to his hotel because the round trip would cost him about four hours anyway, including check-in and check-out, and he wasn't in the mood to make another booking for the night, knowing that he was definitely not going to use it. Sighing, he steeled himself for a long wait.

What he hadn't steeled himself for was a face-full of steaming hot latte.

Doubled over in agony, he desperately tried to wipe the scalding liquid off his face, while someone tried to apologize over and over as they handed him tissue paper. He felt so miserable at that moment that at some point his howls of pain turned into laughter. Confused, the person (who he now realized was a girl) stepped back uncertainly as though unsure what he was doing. Gasping for breath, he said "I think I owe you another latte, since I'm the reason you spilled this one". He looked her in the eyes, and when she saw the laughter in his, she gave a nervous chuckle, as though relieved that she hadn't just ticked off a mass murderer who was about to disembowel her and chew on her kidney. Soon they were both laughing so hard that her face was probably redder than his (even though he'd probably had second degree burns).

After going to the pharmacy and getting ointment for his burns, they started talking. Her name was the prettiest name he'd ever heard; it made him think of rainbows and milk chocolate. Sooner than should be possible for people who were hanging out together for the first time, they were clicking. They started talking about life, grand central, missed trains, missed opportunities, pie (I really like pie), politics, that interview he had with this company he was considering moving to, and they talked a lot about their families, ancestors and what they wanted to do with our lives. She was obviously a very strong, independent woman who was both very opinionated and accepting of other points of view, but was smart enough to pull it off without seeming like a know-it-all. The conversation was a nice break from the standard New York fare of only putting on an interested face while secretly thinking about pizza.

Let's take a second to appreciate pizza.

And we're back.

So anyway, it was past noon now, and he'd begun to really see her (partially because his eyelids were less swollen now). She really was a beautiful creature. She had long, luscious brown hair with a small blonde streak at its end; she had flawless skin, the kind that makes your skin look like frayed lizard scales in comparison. Her lips were just the right size; not thin enough to look like they were drawn on with a pencil, and not big enough to make you vaguely wonder if they double as airbags. They were perfectly red, without any signs of make-up or lip gloss. When she smiled, showing the cutest set of teeth that twinkled playfully in the sunlight, time stood still as he tried not to smile back stupidly like a mindless idiot. Though breathtakingly beautiful, however, none of her individual features could hold a candle to her eyes. He realized he must have been staring at her for a long time without hearing anything, and that his swollen face must look exceedingly hideous in stark contrast, but somehow it didn't seem to matter. When she paused for breath, he took off her glasses and looked into her eyes, and she looked back.

Her eyes were by far the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. It was as if Leonardo Da Vinci had used the Mona Lisa as a failed first attempt before wiping his ass with it and starting on her as his real masterpiece. Perfectly almond-shaped, confident, unblinking; her eye-contact said it all. And there was never a dull moment staring into them, because in a certain light they seemed as blue as the ocean on a clear day, while sometimes the light caught them at a certain angle which made them look as green as... (what's a pretty green thing? Frog? Pickle?) freshly cut grass on a warm summer day. If you were lucky enough, you might even see the grey in them, revealing a sad and mysterious past.

Suddenly a cloud blocked the sunlight, and as her eye-color dimmed he became aware that he was looking at a human being, not a painting. He must have stared at her for hours, but she didn't seem to mind... Is it possible that she'd felt the same way? Something in her eyes seemed to say so... It was a signal. A green light. He leaned in closer and...

The rudest awakening possible as the conductor announced the final call for her train.
Their time was up.

They both ran to the platform, and he hurriedly hugged her as she got on the train. She turned and looked back, and they shared a moment of sorrow as they both knew they would never see each other again. The train then pulled out of the station and out of sight forever... The moment had passed. He'd waited too long. And right then he knew that he would always regret it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There you go, triple helpings of cheese as promised. Since you're going to need a shower anyway, I'll go ahead and indulge my narcissism by talking about myself for a bit. I'm the easiest person in the world to fall in and out of love. My pride and my moodiness make me change my opinion about people all the time... but I despise wasted opportunities and what-ifs. I sometimes tend to fall head over heels for people, girls I've JUST met, and then get over them in 24 hours, sometimes more and sometimes less. Yep, I'm crazy and cheesy (chazy?). I'm chazy but you like it... loca loca loca. Admit it, you smiled at that. Or you have no sense of humor and I feel sorry for you.

Only one last thing to say: you know who you are.

Addio, occhi bellissimi.
Arrivaderci, bella.

Humanity's Hypocrisies

A word of warning: This is an unorthodox post. If you are not into theological philosophy (and human psychology), this is the time to close this page. If you find this post offensive, read the note at the end.
This post in no way represents my own personal feelings or beliefs, I'm a practicing Muslim... It is simply a work of fiction, narrated by an atheist protagonist.

**************************************************************************
Was it all in vain? Is this really the end?

Questions that course through a victim's head... one who regrets his choices. As I sat there, silently forsaking everything I thought I'd stood for, I wondered whether my precious logic or reason would come to my aid now. Can one pray to logic, I wonder? I would have laughed out loud if it wasn't for the whole "imminent death" thing.

I am not a religious man. I've never been the guy who prays or does anything remotely spiritual. Yes, I was born to believe that there is a God and that we should worship him, but I never really understood why. If there is an all-powerful creator of the world we live in, does he really need the insignificant sniveling of little old me- less than a spec of dust to a blue whale on the scale of the universe? Why would my prayers matter? I can't make God grant me my wishes... and what's the worst I can do if he doesn't answer my prayers? Sulk in an insignificant corner in an insignificant room in an insignificant country on an insignificant planet in an insignificant galaxy? Oh wow, that's powerful. What would compel such an all-knowing entity to help me with my daily struggles?

And the opposite is true. I found it hard to believe that such a deity would care whether I worshiped Him or not. Why would He smite me with the wrath of a thousand lightning bolts just because I failed to pray? Surely He would have bigger concerns than myself? Does He have a desire for control? Small chance of that; a God transcends urges and desires...

Then there was the obvious; pain and suffering and war and famine in every corner of the globe. The premise that every religion is based on is that God loves us and wants us to lead happy lives, yet the world has only seen a few decades of peace in the last two millennia. If an all-powerful being were capable of stopping that, why is He blind to the cries of his creations? And if that were the case, would humanity owe Him obedience, or defiance?

The religious texts didn't help; each was as unbelievable as the next. One man gathered all the known animal species in the world on a single boat which survived a disastrous flood? A man walked on water, and came back from the dead? A man lived inside a whale? Whenever I asked too many questions about these events, I was always told to take it on faith; that the whole point of faith is that there is no proof. I was told to protect my mind from such blasphemous thoughts, lest I forsake my religion. That was the last straw... A deity who controlled my very thoughts was not a welcome addition to my adult life, and so after giving it a lot of thought, I decided I was an atheist and embraced my new life-style on my 28th birthday. It wasn't much of a change, really... I'd already been an atheist at heart for years and hadn't practiced any of my religion's teachings, I just hadn't had the courage to openly admit it to myself until then.

Seven months after that fateful decision saw me fastening my seat-belt on a flight to London to attend an important meeting with my company's CEO. My life had completely turned around... I did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to. I had no restrictions, save for a flimsy moral code I'd made for myself. I answered to no one but me (and my boss at work) and partied as hard as anyone. I went home with a different girl every night, kicked her out before breakfast on the next day, went to work, then back home to change, then to the bar where I'd drink, smoke up and maybe snort some coke while I OD'ed on ecstasy or acid or whatever drug I had easy access to that night. Then I'd pick a girl I like (if I were still remotely sober), take her home and the cycle repeated itself. Being atheist didn't mean I had to be immoral, but I allowed myself a lot of freedoms I shouldn't have and I embraced the mistakes I made with a promise to make them again. It was the Neo-American dream, and I was soaking up every glorious drop of it. Now I was on my way to my company's headquarters, probably for a promotion and a big fat bonus cheque.

At least that was the plan...

Instead, halfway through the flight, the stewardesses started darting back and forth between the cabin and the cockpit, in an apparent hurry. Not long after that, the oxygen masks dropped, and people started panicking. Infants screamed; fathers tried to reassure their daughters while in desperate need of a hug themselves; and some people started hyperventilating and passing out. The Captain's grim voice suddenly cracked over the airplane's intercom: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have lost the right engine and will have to make an emergency landing while the left engine is still operational. We kindly ask that you remain seated with your seat-belts on and not panic. Our flight attendants will be passing by shortly to help you take the brace position. Thank you for choosing British Airways". Well, maybe he didn't say that last sentence, but his cocky British accent screamed it... I had a vision of the pilot wearing a monocle and a top hat while sipping tea, and I was just going to laugh when I realized I was probably going to die.

Right on cue, as if the left engine was following my train of thought, there was an explosion on my left and the plane took a nose dive. That was when I knew there was no way out of it. I would die, now. Time stopped.

Was it all in vain? Is this really the end?

I took a look at my three decades on Earth, and decided that I really didn't like how I used them. I didn't help anyone, I didn't have a family, I had no friends to speak of. What was the point of my life? Why was I born? This can't be it! Here I was, dying a thousand miles from home, and in two weeks after the news of my airplane crashing fade from the headlines, I would be forever forgotten... I had left nothing behind to speak of.

And that was when I started praying.

Through a haze of tears and cries and debris smashing through the cabin as we plummeted towards the ground, I started praying. Silently at first, but soon I found myself screaming my prayers at the top of my lungs, over the deafening roar of the engine and the rush of wind past my ears as the plane started disintegrating... perhaps I was hoping that maybe the louder I prayed the more likely I'd be heard. I internally resigned myself to either an eternity of nothingness, or an eternity of damnation... I was unsure which was worse. I hated myself at that moment. I hated my weakness.

I hated that I wished I'd made a different call, and maybe had more faith.
I hated that I secretly hoped there would still be life after death, even though I'd reasoned that they were just children's stories to teach them to cope with death.
I hated that I found myself praying to the very deity I'd forsaken years ago, hoping He'd take me back and forgive my sins.
I hated that my new Gods, Logic and Reason, had no way of saving me and I felt powerless to do anything about it.

But most of all, I hated my own hypocrisy. I'd been an atheist when it suited me, and now I was praying when there was something to gain from it. It was the height of irony that what I'd spent half my adult life ardently denying was now what every fiber in my being wished for... my last hope; my last shot at existence after the crash.

As I drifted out of consciousness, only one thought remained in my head:

I hope I've been wrong.

"Every atheist is religious once the plane starts falling".

*****************************************************************************
This last quote is not my own, but it inspired me to write this. It was necessary to use first-person perspective to better capture the protagonist's feelings, but as I said before, these are not my beliefs; this character is purely fictional (and 28). I think this post will manage to piss off both the religiously devout and the atheists, and I think I deserve a medal for that. Seriously though, no offense intended to either party.

An overdue letter to AUC

Dear AUC,

Where to start? You suck. You are hands down the most corrupt and least efficient organization that I've ever been part of. Registration pains, pointless courses, too much money spent, and shallow students. You overload us with midterms and give us little to no time to prepare, and you insist on giving us our holidays in the most annoying times when all the rest of Egypt are still taking their exams, so we're forced to spend most of the holidays at home. We spend half our college experience on the bus to and from campus, or running around all over AUC to register courses because your online registration also sucks. Most of your food is overpriced and ranges from unhealthy to poisonous/inedible. I was one of the last to witness first-hand the life at the Tahrir campus, where you could also add "crowded" and "way too small" to the nice list I wrote above.
But damn it if you weren't the most important chapter in my life so far.

Through your intense suckiness, you've taught us to depend on each other. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my second family is in AUC's Petroleum Engineering department, where I know from experience that everyone will do everything they can to help you through the rough patches. I'm singling them out because they're my family, but it's not just the PENG department... even though I've met my fair share of fuckwits who I'd rather never see again, I've met amazing people worth twice their weight in gold.
I've made friendships I know will last forever. I had a second home.

I came to you a self-conscious, insecure, socially awkward teenager with a bad haircut, and I'm leaving you as a confident, insanely hot guy (sarcasm) who understands his self-worth and who is not afraid to speak his opinion, and for that I will be eternally grateful. And for all my friends - nay, family- at AUC, whether they've graduated or if they're still going through the character-building maze that is AUC, I appreciate everything you've done for me and I will miss you all, but I'm sure we'll still see each other around. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'll miss this Goddamned place more than I thought I would.

Farewell, AUC. Thank you for making my decade.
But seriously, fuck you still.

Sincerely,
Bondok (2008-2013)

Frozen

Let it goooo, let it go! Can't hold it back anymooooore

Naaaah, just kidding.

*******************************************************

I look around, but I only see
Gloom and grey and shades of white
Why does this sight fill me with glee?
Do I not fear the freezing night?

For I am lost in a wrathful storm,
Snows cover all and cold winds rage
They attack my skin, like a vicious swarm
Of angry bees, in a war they wage

"I shall not fall", I swear, I vow.
"I will not die both cold and alone
I fear no winds, I'll not move now!
My roots are deep and hard as stone"

I feel the cold, it gives me hope
And power and strength and an icy grin
For the cold is me... and I shall cope
With the furious sea of pain within.

"Storm, do your worst, I fear you not!
I've been through far worse storms than you."
The storm replies "You'll die and rot"
And the winds of vengeance blew and blew.

Curse my pride, what kind of man
Would challenge a storm and still survive?
Chased by bees, though other men ran
I walked right up and kicked their hive

Though I am strong, I've made mistakes,
For those I'll pay, for years and years.
Though my regret would fill all lakes
It would not dry their endless tears.

Winter's child and forged from ice,
I was so proud of my cold heart
I had not thought that the price
Would be paid most dearly by their part.

With that, I did kneel in the snow
"My sorrow does not appease their pain"
For every breath I take is a blow,
To the happy memories I have slain.

And thus, I shall await my fate
The king of cold and ice shall freeze
I'd make amends, but it's too late
For me to apologize on my knees.

Some men might wish for a noble death,
With the glow of the Sun, in which they bask
But I'll call for the winds with my last breath,
For a frozen death is all I ask

And though it seems so, it's not mad
For a man to pay for what he's done
and though I freeze, do not be sad
Fulfilled; I'll smile until I'm gone.

*******************************************************

For everyone I've ever hurt. I am sorry.

*******************************************************

Hollow Sapiens

"My liege, I've done it! HOORAH" Screamed Melvin, barging into the throne room unceremoniously, stumbling over his cape.

Melvin. Besotted, poxy, thrice-damned Melvin. The king had had enough of him. And who the hell still wore capes? He rolled his eyes... It was so 12th century.

"What is the meaning of this?" Asked King Hazelnut, visibly annoyed. He had no time for Melvin's shenanigans.
"My liege, I have invented a mechanical bird! Man shall take to the skies in this invention and we shall explore realms far and wide!"

Typical. Leave it to Melvin to make the most unorthodox crackpot inventions imaginable when he wasn't under adult supervision.

Melvin Whatshisface was an eccentric younger brother to one of Hazelnut's powerful lords; Lord Whatshisface. One day, said lord requested that Melvin be granted any position in the king's retinue, to "honor the family name and strengthen ties between the families". Seeing as they were very close personal friends, the king accepted, but was now beginning to suspect that Whatshisface had more sinister motives to want Melvin as far away from his castle as possible. If it wasn't for their friendship, he would have had Melvin flogged, himself.

For one thing, he was always in his "lab", working on prototypes for inventions no one asked him for. More often than not, he blew up his chamber, and sometimes they found him passed out in a pool of what looked like vomit and smelled like apple pie. Once, they found blue smoke streaming from under his door, and when they walked into the room they found him upside down in a cauldron full of ale screaming "SPRING BREAK WOOOHOOOOOO". The man was insane. Bearing that in mind, you'll understand why the king was skeptical about his revelation.

"CHARLES!" called out Hazelnut.
"Your Majesty!" A burly pikeman kneeled in front of the throne, looking apprehensive. Last time he was asked to handle Melvin, they found him sprawled face-down on Melvin's bed five hours later, wiggling his feet and talking about boys. He still had no idea what Melvin had given him.
"Escort Melvin to his quarters. It appears he has been drinking his urine again." yawned the king.
The Queen cleared her throat.
Charles was just starting to get up when Melvin pushed him. When you're wearing steel armor that weighs 50 kilograms, and a man pushes you, you fall. And when you struggle to get up, you look comically like a cockroach trying to get off its back. As Charles wiggled on the floor trying to grab hold of any edge to hoist himself up, Melvin continued his speech like nothing happened.

"My liege, I beg the honor of escorting you to the courtyard, where my invention is ready for your highness. I assure you, I've already tested it several times, and it is almost as safe as being flung from a catapult. You have my word."
The Queen cleared her throat.

"Melvin, if you pick on Charles again I will have you flung from a catapult and you can tell me how safe it is, then. He is the captain of my guard for God's sake, and if I have to overhear him complaining to William again about how "mean" you are to him, I'll have him flung with you."

"But my liege, the mechanical bird awaits! The sky's the limit! Literally!"
The Queen cleared her throat.
"Is my Queen well, or should I send for the physician?"

Queen Latifah smiled, and said: "I thank you for your kindness, your majesty, but there will be no need for that. Perhaps my liege would like to inspect this contraption for himself? Surely it would be more entertaining than Charles's worm dance"

The king groaned. Of course she'd say that, her last name was also Whatshisface.

"Very well. Charles, I command you to stop wriggling."

Out of the hall, down five flights of stairs, through an entrance hall and out into the courtyard they went. Hazelnut paused at the entrance of the courtyard, taken aback at the strange sight before him. It looked like an immense white tube, with what looked like fixed wings on either side.
"Melvin, where did you find this?"
"During one of my experiments, I tested the hydrodynamical resistance of the coefficient of-" Melvin began, but the king cut him off
"You have no idea how you summoned this, do you?"
"Not even a slight one, my liege" He seemed very proud of the fact.
"How have I not noticed this before?" Asked Hazelnut.
"My liege, I've been leading a huge workforce to flatten a very long patch of land to create a port for this device. I have flown it three times over the past week alone, and its shrieks are loud enough for the devil himself to bang his broomstick on the roof of hell yelling "SOME OF US HAVE WORK IN THE MORNING". I would not presume to give offense but you are not a very attentive king, your grace." Melvin smiled. Hazelnut wanted to punch him.
"And how have you learned to fly it?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"It came with an instruction manual!" Said Melvin with a note of derision, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
"Does anyone else know about this?" Asked the king.
"Surprisingly not, your grace. The middle ages are a very fun time to have a secret; people thought the shrieks were coming from hungry dragons and no one seems to look twice at the bird. I believe it is invisible to everyone else unless I point it out to them. Hey, don't look at me, that's the crappy story the writer came up with to justify this"
"What writer?"
"Never mind your grace, would you like to ride the bird?"

And so, the king boarded the plane with Melvin, and they took off to parts unknown. The Queen mourned her lost king for years and years, not knowing that he was living far away in the arms of five other hoes, partying all day and night with Melvin and being the old-timey equivalent of a rockstar. True Story.

The Queen blamed herself. He had disappeared the minute she asked him to see Melvin's invention, and she couldn't believe she was the reason he died. The fact that her name was Queen Latifah was no longer funny. Anyway, if she knew where he was, it would make no sense for her to mourn, right? He was alive and well, so what's the point?

Now think of the plane as a metaphor for death, and reread the story because it's funny as hell.

____________________________________________________________________________
Why do we hate death?
Fear of the unknown.

Think about it. If there was a way for you to contact your deceased loved ones, you wouldn't fear death. And why would you? About 3 centuries ago, travelling overseas was equal to a death sentence. You couldn't contact your loved ones, and the distance was so great that families said their goodbyes to their travelling relatives, fully expecting never to be reunited again. Does that mean that those relatives died the minute they boarded the ships? As far as their families were concerned they did, because they would never see them again... and yet they still lived in some remote corner of the planet. Far and unreachable... but alive. I, for one, want to board the ship. It can't be worse than reality. I believe that the dead live on in a place unknown to us, much like the Americas were unknown to the Europeans in the 13th century... We just don't know how to reach them. Yet.

As JK Rowling once said (through Albus Dumbledore's lips): "For the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

Modern human beings pride themselves on their rationality. We think, evaluate, and make "logical" decisions and judgments. Yet for all our intelligence, we have an irrational fear of the unknown. Death is final. Death is real. Death is a part of life. We don't seem to want to understand that... ignoring a hard truth is easy. We want to believe that we are invincible, untouchable, unyielding... But the fact of the matter is we have a very constricting limit called "death". In fact, it is a testament to sheer human willpower that we have managed to thrive for this long without imploding (well, I wouldn't say "thrive", Egypt is imploding already. But you get the gist). We survive. We build. Our species stares death in the eye every day, roaring its defiance, determined to survive... and this is why death has gone from being our limit to being the ultimate source of our strength. But even though we have left our mark on death, it will win every time. No one beats death, least of all humans, with our insignificant life spans.

We are fragile. We are weak. We are hollow.
We are human.
Embrace it.

Need For Speed: Da2ery

A very narrow opening between the car in front of him and the car to his right... He floored the accelerator, taking a sharp swerve to the right at the last second, barely slipping between them and zooming off.

Ever careless, heedless of his own safety, he never really considered the danger his reckless driving posed to himself and others. He was aware of it, of course, but it always seemed unlikely for something bad to happen to him. Much like we all choose to ignore inconvenient truths and convince ourselves that it would never happen to us, he never really gave it any serious thought. He didn't do it to look cool. He didn't do it to endanger others. No one understood.

He turned up the volume on his iPod.

People underestimate the mood-lifting effects of driving like an idiot. Sure, it's dangerous and you could kill pedestrians and you could crash your car and blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH but oh GOD the feeling is unrivaled. Going as fast as your car would go without crashing into other cars or breaking the sound barrier is more invigorating than any drug or pill. You reach this moment of clarity where you understand that your life is in your hands... Literally. To live or to die depends on your skills, your judgement and how well you know your car.

He lifted his foot off the accelerator and banked hard to the left, using the car's momentum and centripetal acceleration to carry him past the car in front of him, and then slammed the gas pedal as hard as it would go as soon as he passed it.

Our parents are liars. They made us think we have a choice. The illusion of choice is more cruel than having a predetermined role in life, because as soon as you realize it, your life is never the same. We fool ourselves into believing that we control our destiny, but do we? We are metaphorically given a choice to either swim across the ocean, board a ship, or fly... But no one ever asks us if we want to cross that ocean in the first place. It's always assumed, because it's "the cycle of life". We are born, we go to school, we study hard to go to a good college, we study hard in college to work for a good company and buy a car and a house with a white picket fence. Then we get married, have children, have them go to school to repeat the same cycle, while we slowly age until our lives are over, leaving nothing more than a skid-mark on the highway that is life... if we're lucky.

A radar camera was coming up to his left... He was going too fast. He glanced in his rear view mirror, and there was a car behind him so he couldn't brake as hard as he wanted. He made a sharp turn to the right and slammed on the brakes, barely steadying the steering wheel with both his hands. He barely made it to the speed limit as he screeched past the camera.

Nothing steadied his nerves as much as a dangerous gamble with death. It was up to him. He was in control. No one could tell him what to do. If he were to want to crash into a wall or a truck, he would do it and bear the consequences. The stakes were high, but it was his call. His car. His life. Once he made a decision, he had to live with it. At these speeds, you can't go back. You either speed up and take the opportunity, or you slow down to a speed where you can think. You are committed to your decision. There is no middle ground. To hesitate is to die.

A Nickelback song came on shuffle. It ruined his mood. He clicked "next" on his iPod, and replied to a text message on his phone.

But as much as he loved driving, he also hated it. He hated it because he hated not knowing if today would be the day he finally took it too far, giving a random stranger the chance to deliver the worst news in the world to his family as his car lay crumpled on the side of the road. He could not be trusted with a car, especially when he was in emotional turmoil. It always made him at least thrice as reckless.

He'd always thought driving was a lot like life. We're not all equals. Some people have better cars than others, and hence they have a head-start. Literally. Also, you can let obstacles such as road bumps or traffic rules hold you back... or you can achieve your full potential. In some ways, he found driving to be a better, riskier version of life... Your every decision counts. During those few, adrenaline-charged seconds when you notice a window of opportunity up ahead and you decide to take it, you make your own reality. Rational thinking, logic, emotion... they all take the back seat and instincts take over. You're a fighter pilot, maneuvering your way out of a missile lock... or a hawk, taking a deep dive to snatch a fish from under the waves.

Say what you will, but he felt more alive doing five minutes of that than he did "living" for a few weeks.

Of course, human instincts are not always accurate.

He started gathering speed to overtake a car. As always, his car made that angry rumbling noise as the RPM cranked up and the motor tried to deal with the extra fuel input. He was just about to take a left when he noticed a car behind him on the left, right in his rear view mirror's blind spot. But he was going too fast now, he couldn't brake in time to avoid slamming into the car in front of him. He could either go left or go right. He was getting closer. He had to make an immediate decision. To hesitate is to die. He knew there was a car to his left, and there was no time to look in the side view mirror... so he banked right at 80 MPH, hoping for the best.

There was a car to his right.

__________________________________________________________________________
In the memory of Maged El-Gaweesh.

PS: This post in no way promotes reckless driving. It is purely a work of fiction, meant to portray the speed junkie's point of view. Please drive responsibly... the protagonist dies.