Unreserved

One of the things that I find absolutely amusing about this city is the total lack of reserved behavior. People all around town feel completely free to express themselves and behave exactly the way they want. Like the guy that passed by Footlocker at 9:oo pm and found it closed couldn't resist to raise his middle finger and scream from the top of his lungs "bloody assholes, fuck you" and then bang a clenched fist on the glass door. I'm sure it was relieving; I felt relieved just looking at him get that out of his system.

Or the kindred gentleman sitting on the steps of the train station smoking a joint reaking of a very obvious illegal substance. I stared at his blatant indulgence in utter disbelief wondering why the hell he wasn't getting his fix at a park or in the privacy of his own home. He noticed my fixated stare, and offered me a drag! Noticing the immediate horror on my face, he added "its pure, without any crack". "Um, no thank you" I muttered and rushed to the opposite direction. The guy is either mental, or has guts! Either way, he deserved my admiration.

Or the old man that stands in a corner near Marks And Spencer preaching about God and eternal damnation, with fervent passion. I love it how he just chose a random spot in a busy street, positioned himself to face the crowds and express himself as offensively and loudly as possible, without a care in the world.

And then finally, a couple of old women standing angrily infront of a bus, blocking the traffic and demanding the bus driver to open his doors. They screamed, yelled and threatened. And they refused to move out of the street untill he would yeild. I watched the amusing drama momentarily, and listened attentively to the obscene profanities being spewn by the old women.

Oh the passion that belied the street. An entertaining live theatre. Everyone walks around with an innate ability to discard convention, in various costumes, casting aside conditioned reservations, and feeling totally open and free to express, scream and behave as enthusiastically as they please. And I remembered how repressed my childhood was, when the boys in my family were scolded when they cried, and the girls reprimanded when they weren't 'ladylike', and how expressing unpopular opinions or behaving in a manner that offended traditional ideologies bears heavily undesired consequences, the closeted personalities and the homogeneous crowds striving to blend to achieve redundant conformity. And the indifferent facial expressions, lingering on young confused adolescents, caught between their implanted reservations, and their desire to be human.

Don't tell me Kuwait is the same minus the clubs and alcohol! The entire social fabric is fundamentally different!