Just Rambling
The Infinite Wisdom Of A Doorman
"I remember throughout my childhood, my mother had a hairdressing saloon in one of the main streets in Jaffa, and near her there was this huge library where children were going in and out and spending a reasonable time playing with the new computers and reading and borrowing books.
This building fascinated me, so everytime I visited my mother at work I went close to the building to check out the action, but for some reason I never went in. Since all I saw was groups of Jewish children entering and exiting the place, I was under the impression that this place was out of bounds for Arabs.
I used to peek into the front glass door and when I saw someone approaching I ran away as fast as I could.
What I didn´t know is that there was an old doorman inside the library that was watching me everytime this happened.
One day I was with my cousin and we decided to break the law. We pretended that we didn´t know that "only Jews are allowed" and tried to walk inside. The fear started to build up as we approached the library doors, the adrenaline rush was slowly taking control. We passed the entrance glass doors and when we reached another door that lead to the childrens' library we froze infront of a old doorman.
The doorman sensing that we were acting as if we were doing something wrong said: "Hey kids what are doing?"
Not knowing what to say and holding ourselves from making a scene or running for our lives, I decided to ask "Can we come in?", he responded "Why not?" and I said "because we are Arabs".
He paused for a couple of seconds and slowly put a big smile on his face as if everything is becoming clear to him.
He said "Child, one of the only things in life is that WE ARE NOT ABLE TO CHOOSE WHO TO BE BORN TO"
Later on you will understand how these words triggered a butterfly effect on all of my perception on life."
