One time, circumstances forced me to walk in a terrifying slum on the outskirts of the city, and I noticed that the poor residents of the neighborhood were looking at me with a fierce, menacing look. The women were staring at me in suspicion and hatred, and the children were running after me, but at a reasonable distance, because they were afraid of me, and curiosity prevented them from moving away. Here I realized that I seemed too elegant and arrogant...more than they were comfortable with. I don't know how I survived this adventure anyway.
A week later, I had to meet a man in one of the very upscale and wealthy neighborhoods... luxury cars of the latest model, so that my car next to them looked more like a garbage can that someone had thrown there. I noticed the looks of surprise and hostility directed at me by everyone I met there, and when I wanted to enter that building, the security guard stopped me to find out who I was in detail. I looked at myself in the giant mirror behind the guard and realized the reason: I looked shabby, suspicious, and too poor.
This is how I knew that I belonged to the middle camp in everything.. I had no place in the society of the wealthy, but the society of the poor did not accept me either..
If someone threatens you while you are in the camp of the rich, there is no problem because your bodyguard of bald-headed men with black jackets will surround you to protect you. If someone threatens you while you are in the camp of the poor, your gang members armed with heavy sticks, chains, and acid bottles will surround you... As for when you are in the camp of the poor, there will be no problem. In the middle, you get hit in all cases.
During my college days, I was in love with Hiyam, my classmate. She admired my vitality and youth, but she did not admire my poverty and bankruptcy. She considered it extremely courageous, bordering on impudence, for me to come forward and ask for her hand from her family. My father told me that this was impossible.. And so I decided to play the role of the boy whose heart was broken, and I stayed up for days writing very bad poetry and drinking cups of strong black tea. My stomach hurts from the tea, so I think these are the stomach aches and heart ulcers that they talk about.
I spent my life trying to collect money. Then I had the opportunity to ask for Hiyam’s hand. I searched for her and found that she had become a terrifying, obese woman with five children who she would not stop slapping. Here I found a girl who looked exactly like the young Hiyam. She had the same personality. Character and the same gentle, sad touch. I asked to approach her, but she looked at me in contemplation for a long time, then said:
“You are in a good financial situation, but sorry.. there is not a single black hair on your head.. Has it not occurred to you that if you got married at the age of twenty, you would have a daughter my age?”
Then she started testing me:
“Do you know the latest song by (Tamer Hosni)?.. What do you know about (George Wassouf)?.. What is the midfield formation of the Al-Ahly team?.. What is the last film of Leonardo DiCaprio? ''
Of course I didn't speak.
she is right ..
I'm in the middle camp...the middle age where you can no longer have love for anyone, and you don't want another one who slaps her children three times a day...
Even if you decide to marry without love... You will not marry (Attiyat), the poor, beautiful, hot-tempered girl, as she is not of your class. You will not marry (Inji), the spoiled aristocratic girl who plays tennis and travels to Europe twice a year. You will marry a middle-class bride. (Ilham) is the daughter of Mr. Abdel Jawad, the geography teacher. She believes that being with you is a high price that must be paid in exchange for a house and children... in preparation for becoming a mother of five children who she slaps all day long...
Yes...the problem of being a man in the middle is a difficult problem in sociology, requiring a longer article. But I will not be able to ignore it as the average man does, and I will not be able to write a specialized academic study about it, because I am exactly in the middle between the ignorant and the academic