Ahmad Al Charif

Or are we dancer? 🙂 i never really got that song, but that is not what this article is about.

There was a small kitten, hiding somewhere beneath my building meowing endlessly on a very hot summer evening, while i laid in my bed trying to catch some sleep.

At first, the little bugger started to get on my nerves. As it’s frantic screams startled me whenever i started to drift into sleep. But eventually, and through a lot of applied patience i managed to doze off.

Therein began one of the most vivid dreams i ever recall having. I dreamt i was walking in a beautiful meadow, barefoot with my toes sinking into the soft grass as i observed the beautiful trees and plant-life, unlike anything i have ever seen in my life.

Whichever direction i looked, i saw greenery fused with vibrating light, which emanated most strongly and seemed to be leaking out of the leaves and fruits. I approached one of the trees, and picked a round luminous fruit, bigger than the fist of my hand, dipped it in one of the many big lakes of crystal clear water, and brought it up to my mouth to take a bite.

Only then did i notice again, the sound of a small distressed cat begging for help. I tried walking in the direction of the cat, to find myself suddenly wide awake, staring into the blackness of my room.

I listened closely, but the cat was nowhere to be heard. It made me feel weary, and i could not bring myself to go back to sleep.

So i wear my slippers, and go out the balcony. Where upon listening closely i could make out the faint sound of the cat, slowly fading away. The sound is coming from a very small garden, trapped between the buildings, secured by tall cement walls, and one locked gate.

Moments later, i am scaling the fence, and looking around in the bushes to find a small kitten, afraid, soaked wet and trembling cold. I source supplies from my house, and go back down where i towel off the small cat, and offer it a small meal and an old worn out blanket. The cat resists at first, and flees towards the wet bushes, but i observe from a distance as it slowly settles into the warmth of the blanket, and eats the food.

I turn around to head back up with a smile on my face, when i see my next door neighbor lock his car, and head my way.

That was a very humane thing, what you just did, he said to me.

“براڤو عليك عملت عمل انساني”

I found that kind of funny, and sad at the same time.

And here i would like to end this short and random story by posing a question:

What defines us as human beings, if not our qualities and the things we do?

Did i really do something worth commending? Are tenderness, compassion, and sympathy qualities only possessed by a rare breed, that once encountered these people are now marveled at, if not sometimes ridiculed?

If being human is now an adjective only applicable to a select few, then what in god’s name are we becoming as a race?

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adjective