A LOVE STORY - SHAMAL & DUSTY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW IN THE HELL
DID WE GET HERE?
(Part II)
I know this may sound weird...
But you have to understand.
I was totally and blissfully ignorant
of the Middle East.
Like most Americans, I had a real
information gap when it came down to
what I knew about Pakistan and what
I SHOULD have known.
I did eventually get up to speed
however through my knowing
an Afghan journalist
by the name of
Mustafa Kazemi,
but meeting him was still two years
away when I first met Shamal.
In those early days and years,
Shamal and I never talked about
Pakistan, nor his growing up nor
his culture...nor anything like that.
Amazing but we just never did.
SO, by the time 'that day' came,
I was more knowledgeable about
Afghanistan and somewhat about
the Middle East but not Pakistan
nor Pakistani's.
I mean.
I was totally clueless, as usual.
Except for Mustafa I had never
even had a friend from that part
of the world other than Shamal.
Many of my mothers doctors were from the Middle East, but that was different. Dr/patient thing. I NEVER had a 'personal' conversation with ANY of them.
NOR had I ever been around
anyone from there really.
SO I was not pre-disposed
to find myself attracted
to someone like Shamal.
To sum it up, he had his work
cut out for him cause I am
NO pushover,
TRUST ME...
(partly cause of the S.A.D. I suffer from),
and especially for someone
I would not be all that open
to having a
'relationship' with.
But...
this is where it begins to get weird.
Lol.
There we were with him showing up sporadically mostly via emails.
Then earlier this year I had decided
I needed to be more honest
in my critiques and so I set about
doing one of his poetries,
and I was more honest.
Not nasty or brutish but simply
a bit more hopefully
constructively critical than I had been.
Suddenly I didn't hear from him again...
for several weeks. Finally, he emailed me
that it wasn't me that was to blame for his absence, nor anything I had done.
It was him but then again nothing
for a bit and again I felt that maybe
I had been a bit too honest and
since we weren't physically together
and he couldn't see or hear how
I had meant what I had said,
I felt maybe he couldn't handle
that level of honesty.
He did say no that wasn't it, but I
didn't know that he was moving
or had moved to Cyprus to try to
make more money. I didn't know things
were bad for him. All I had seen was
that he was teaching English
and figured that was a pretty kewl gig,
and things were okay.
However in that part of the world
income and pay levels are not
what they are in the U.S.
Shamal never complains,
so I didn't know that at the time.
This went on for a bit.
What I also did not know was that
he was having to move between jobs
and he was really struggling in Cyprus.
Even more significant however
was the fact that somewhere
along the way he had realized he was
in love with...ME. HUH?
Yup, and after he knew that?
He says now that
he didn't want to burden me
with his problems so I had NO idea.
Again, I was blissful in my ignorance,
but it would seem our fearless lover
was making plans. Oh yes he was.
Hahahaha.
PLANS?
Yeh and a move by the U.S. Supreme Court would play a huge part in
what came next...
What I like to call the period of...
SHAMAL'S SKULDUGGERY.
Read on to find out what they were
and the profound implications
those plans would have on
BOTH of our lives...
for the REST of our lives,
in other words...
FOREVER!
HOW IN THE HELL
DID WE GET HERE?
(Part II)
I know this may sound weird...
But you have to understand.
I was totally and blissfully ignorant
of the Middle East.
Like most Americans, I had a real
information gap when it came down to
what I knew about Pakistan and what
I SHOULD have known.
I did eventually get up to speed
however through my knowing
an Afghan journalist
by the name of
Mustafa Kazemi,
but meeting him was still two years
away when I first met Shamal.
In those early days and years,
Shamal and I never talked about
Pakistan, nor his growing up nor
his culture...nor anything like that.
Amazing but we just never did.
SO, by the time 'that day' came,
I was more knowledgeable about
Afghanistan and somewhat about
the Middle East but not Pakistan
nor Pakistani's.
I mean.
I was totally clueless, as usual.
Except for Mustafa I had never
even had a friend from that part
of the world other than Shamal.
Many of my mothers doctors were from the Middle East, but that was different. Dr/patient thing. I NEVER had a 'personal' conversation with ANY of them.
NOR had I ever been around
anyone from there really.
SO I was not pre-disposed
to find myself attracted
to someone like Shamal.
To sum it up, he had his work
cut out for him cause I am
NO pushover,
TRUST ME...
(partly cause of the S.A.D. I suffer from),
and especially for someone
I would not be all that open
to having a
'relationship' with.
But...
this is where it begins to get weird.
Lol.
There we were with him showing up sporadically mostly via emails.
Then earlier this year I had decided
I needed to be more honest
in my critiques and so I set about
doing one of his poetries,
and I was more honest.
Not nasty or brutish but simply
a bit more hopefully
constructively critical than I had been.
Suddenly I didn't hear from him again...
for several weeks. Finally, he emailed me
that it wasn't me that was to blame for his absence, nor anything I had done.
It was him but then again nothing
for a bit and again I felt that maybe
I had been a bit too honest and
since we weren't physically together
and he couldn't see or hear how
I had meant what I had said,
I felt maybe he couldn't handle
that level of honesty.
He did say no that wasn't it, but I
didn't know that he was moving
or had moved to Cyprus to try to
make more money. I didn't know things
were bad for him. All I had seen was
that he was teaching English
and figured that was a pretty kewl gig,
and things were okay.
However in that part of the world
income and pay levels are not
what they are in the U.S.
Shamal never complains,
so I didn't know that at the time.
This went on for a bit.
What I also did not know was that
he was having to move between jobs
and he was really struggling in Cyprus.
Even more significant however
was the fact that somewhere
along the way he had realized he was
in love with...ME. HUH?
Yup, and after he knew that?
He says now that
he didn't want to burden me
with his problems so I had NO idea.
Again, I was blissful in my ignorance,
but it would seem our fearless lover
was making plans. Oh yes he was.
Hahahaha.
PLANS?
Yeh and a move by the U.S. Supreme Court would play a huge part in
what came next...
What I like to call the period of...
SHAMAL'S SKULDUGGERY.
Read on to find out what they were
and the profound implications
those plans would have on
BOTH of our lives...
for the REST of our lives,
in other words...
FOREVER!
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