“Cool down; it’s alright!” a couple of people were trying to calm a lady probably in her late thirties. She was arguing with a fellow about a decade her senior. None of us onlookers seem to know the actual issue in dispute. For us it was the intensity of the lady’s anger that got our attention. I don’t remember the last time I saw lady so worked up! The peacemakers continued pleading, “You don’t have to be so angry. You’ll hurt yourself. It’s alright.” Time didn’t allow me to see the outcome. But was it really ‘alright’ as they were saying it was, or was it citizen diplomacy at work?
One reason I enjoy watching Robert de Niro films is that guy could play the angry character with such mastery. Such is he is performance, one wonders if he was playing his real character. And yes, there is also Tony Soprano. The Sopranos didn’t manage to glue millions in their chairs for nothing. You seldom see other characters saying, “It’s alright.” If someone said that and the de Niro and guy consented you’d almost cry “I paid so much for this! It’s mugging!”
Seeing angry characters onscreen is one thing, coming across some in real life is a whole lot of a different story. Keeping any boat from rocking is nice. Even when you are on the receiving end of some abuse or injustice be your charming best. So, you’re told. Someone certainly didn’t tell that to the chap who raised all hell because he thought the driver in front of him was deliberately blocking his way! In Addis! I mean anyone who tries to start a revolution in Addis over some car blocking his/her way must be nuts. Whether driving or walking in this city blocking one’s way is no offense. “Oh, it’s alright;” that’s what you’re supposed to say. Well it isn’t always that easy.
Say a guy who hits the scale at over one fifty kilos steps on your foot and the pain surges through every cell of your body. If it wasn’t for the “What’ll people say?” red light, you would have loved to wail at the top of your voice. The truthful, and perfectly human, way to react is, “What’s the matter with you! Can’t you see where your feet land?” No, you’re supposed to say “Oh, it’s alirght!” even if he didn’t offer an apology.
Look the guy who stepped on you wasn’t wearing shoes; he was wearing cricket bats! Yes, that’s what happened; he stepped on your emaciated foot with shoes which probably served as the model to the cricket bat! And you’re supposed to say, “Oh it’s aliright;” NO! NO! NO! All your toenails are threatening to just pop out and fly away and how can that be alirght! Hey, throw those cricket bats out the window and get yourself some decent shoes!
Someone with the shoulders of a WWE brute crashes into you with such force the only reason you didn’t end facing the sprawling skies is because someone caught you in the nick of time. I mean that guy needed to be told his shoulders could be more useful, in some quarry or something. Had Sisyphus got this guy’s help maybe that rock would ended where it should have, on top of the mountain.
Your shoulders thinned up with such finality the tailor finds it hard to make any calculations; and this John Cena or something bumps into them! No, you aren’t supposed to get angry! No dark lines crisscrossing your face. “Oh. It’s alright!” Unfortunately, the shoulders, the pain of which lingers, don’t react to those nice words! “Look the only thing you get by being angry is some ulcer!” What ulcer?
This happened way back. After long months of trying, try manages to get his dream girl’s OK for a night out. A night out is the zenith of going out on a date. Ha! The guy hit the bull’s eye! The couple of friends whom he let into his secret were happy for him. That “Ok;” seemed to have been the only thing he lived for. That night was the first, and probably the last time he dressed like a Hollywood Oscar material.
What last time! Well, the dream girl failed to show up! Yes that didn’t show up! He knew she was serving him his marching orders when she refused to answer his calls in the following days! He was so angry that for some days, he was discreetly hunting for her in places where they frequented during their prelude which never progressed into Chapter One! Of course, once word got out his friends intervened. It took a whole shipment of “Oh it’s alright!” to bring him back to his senses.
It has been years since you got your last raise. You tell your boss about it, and what does he do. He tells you are free to resign if you’re not happy. What! Is that why you have been laboring all those years for? This guy is plucked from God knows where and he plays you the resignation card! If that doesn’t make you angry, start looking or all the screws you have are missing form upstairs. Anyone trying to tell you, “Oh, it’s alright,” will be thrown into your black list! However nice you try to be, however much you worry about a VIP front seat in the afterlife, certain things aren’t just ALRIGHT!
Still, be nice, even if it isn’t alright. Aha! That, dear fellow human beings, is my defense against “Didn’t I tell you the guy was hiding horns and the tail! There is your evidence.”
The Ethiopian Herald Friday 28 February 2020
Ephrem Endale
Contributer
