Married Life

Marriage comes with a great deal of responsibility. It also comes with some very daunting titles. In English there are "Mr. and Mrs.", in Arabic there are "Ustez and Madam", and the word for "my wife", "Mirati" sounds like a death sentence. If someone said to you "Mirati will be there," you probably wouldn't go.

With such a great deal of responsibility and such heavy titles comes a certain level of maturity. The relationship invariably develops a degree of gentility and reservation. Of course, the level of maturity and the degrees of gentility and reservation attained vary from couple to couple, and are influenced by a number of factors.

Keeping that in mind, I will recount an example of one of Wahied's and my marital interactions:

At about 6am yesterday (certain parties have trouble reading digital clocks, and mistook the 6 for an 8) Wahied exhibited an unusual amount of exuberance. As I exited the kitchen with a bottle of mineral water in hand, Wahied decided he would woo me with tales of past great accomplishments. "Did you know that I used to be able to vault over my friends' heads? While they were standing up? Really, I could jump over 3 or 4 of them at a time! AND they were taller than you. Here! I'll show you!" Despite objections ranging from "It's 6am" to "No, please it's really ok." Wahied turned me around so my back was to him and ran towards me from the other end of the hallway. When he pushed down on my shoulders, in order to vault over them, my feet, which were in flip-flops, slid out from under me on the alabaster floor. The back of my head hit the marble with an audible crack. A second later Wahied, whose collapsing vault had interrupted his jump, landed in a belly flop on top of me, hitting his head on the alabaster floor between my knees. Both of us managed to sit up momentarily, before collapsing in a heap of giggles.

Like I said, different strokes for different folks. But, if this is what the next 60-70 years are going to be like, sign me up. :P