America's Obsession with Color.......by Jamil Shawwa

We, Americans, a nation that is obsessed with color. My daughter used to call my car by it is brand, now it calls it the black car. My wife, the other day asked me to get her glasses box from the car gloves compartment by saying, get me the black thing for my glasses. What black thing, I asked innocently? I am famous of burning my toast, and used to say the toast was burned; now I hear the wife saying, it looks black. When we have snow, people say, the white stuff, what white stuff? I remember people used to describe heroin or cocaine as the white stuff. Kids in schools who if no one intervenes would embrace diversity as a natural way and normal, now their teachers make it a point to tell them that they are different from each other, all in the name of political correctness and embracing diversity. What diversity, what is the point in telling kids, you are black, you are white, and you are this or that. Once, as an employee of a defunct company, I attended a seminar that talked about diversity as a part of various employees enhancement workshops, and the participants, the instructor, started talking about how we are different- people setting in the room- and how we need to accept each other. I was amazed, once this instructor started to talk about these things, people started to look at each other, the atmosphere became rather electrified and embarrassing. We were all a very diverse group people, whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, etc. We were the United States of America in one room. That room was so warm before we started to talk diversity and became so cold once we started to look at each other, trying to figure out who is what and who is not. Before that seminar, we all talked, laughed, and no one really paid attention, or cared to pay attention about the so called differences, after the seminar, we started to look at each other suspiciously.

*The Wife Talks...... by Jamil Shawwa

The scene: early- kind of- morning, wife and husband bedroom. Husband just woke up, lying in bed looking at the window and probably beyond the window, to the scene outside. Wife, what else, changing the daily stuff that people should change at least once a day.
The view: snow everywhere, including the bedroom, figuratively speaking and not literally for those that are wondering.


Husband: the phone rang few moments ago, can you get it for me.
Wife: no, you get it.
Husband: but dear, you are there, just grab it and throw it to me, what is the big deal.
Wife: I tell you what the big deal is, it is you, your laziness, you do not want to move from the bed.
Husband: where shall I go, it is snowing like crazy outside.
Wife, with an attitude, as usual: help me, maybe, for a change.
Husband: I always help, who took the garbage last night, who filled the dishwasher, who gave the kids a bath.
Wife: still, you are lazy now; yesterday is gone, and today is a new day.
Husband: this has been the story of our marriage, no appreciation, no credits, always looking at the negative. You just cannot see the real me.
Wife: oh yes, I can see the real you, lazy, giving orders, loves waitresses, hairdressers, cafes and restaurants.
Husband: I cannot believe it, all this because I asked you to not even bring the phone but throw it at me.
Wife: it is not the phone it is what beyond the phone, it is what the phone means, and it is the symbol that I am rejecting.
Husband: I think I lost you mentally as I lost you physically long time ago, what do you mean.
Wife: I tell you what I mean , it is what you are waiting for, it is that other girl or girls, who knows, it is that other imaginary place that you keep dreaming of, it is the place, the food , the restaurant. You do not like it with me, you never did, and it is always that other unknown that you are looking for, you just looking for an escape, from me and everything.
Husband, shocked and speechless but not surprised: all this inside you, is this the way you really feel, all this resentment, all this even maybe hatred, I can not believed it. How many times do I approach you a day, how many times have reached out for you, how many times I asked you to open up and just talk. You never gave me a chance; you just were indifferent, negative, and passive. You are the kind that keeps things inside boiling, until it reaches the level of no return, until it explodes.
Wife: I had it with you, with your life style, with your laziness; a writer, please, who reads the dribble that you write, who cares about what you think. You are nothing. I do not see any talent in you.
Husband: I should not have asked for that phone.


*Disclaimer:
For entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance with any real life situations or people is just a mere coincidence.
These conversations are not related to any specific person or persons. They are general human conversations from life.