Getting Ready to be Unready - Man, Woman and Love

6. Unready and Ready

I am ready, o' Love,

To be unready

And face you,

In whatever guise

That you choose

To wear.

We cannot choose the timing for love. We cannot say that in my 42nd year, after decades of bachelorhood, I am determined to fall in love and get married. As I had written earlier, my oldest friend is about to be wed at a ripe age of 41, just short of his 42nd birthday. Nothing was more surprising than this because he appeared determined to spend the rest of his life in blissful singleton. Do not be fooled into thinking that he is leading a quiet solitary life. For like most of my friends, he is a charmer and an excellent company. Being a diplomat he has friends all over the place. So it was not as if he is searching for companionship.

If he has one personal weakness, if you would call it that, it is his distaste for uncertainty. Time and again he has shared into my ears his unmitigated dislike for volatility and unpredictability. He is fond of clarity and likes to call a spade a spade, and a shovel a shovel.

Well, love has given him a shovel and love is telling him to start digging. To bury his old habits and pick up new ones, to be open to change, and most importantly, to uncertainty. For if there is one adjective fitting for  women, it is uncertainty and unpredictability. For you see, women have figured out that what men need is uncertainty and occasional surprises in our lives. A good scare is healthy and keeps us on our toes, you see. Men should have figured this out by now...

Let me be clear., my love. I am not in the mood. Go away.

So if you are about to fall in love, then prepare to be unready. And in the face of arbitrary whims and feminine guile, our duty is only to listen, to obey and to always (and I mean ALWAYS) say, "Yes, dear..."

Have a lovely Wednesday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way