Why don’t we tell the donkey that it’s a donkey ?

 

Why don’t we tell the donkey that it’s a donkey ?

Watching a scene in a foreign TV show, an old man is sitting, drinking coffee, and watching TV. He’s not doing anything important when someone knocks on his door, he gets up lazily and opens it, it was one of his friends. He asked him with surprise: Sami! Is everything okay? His friend replied: Yes, everything’s fine. Sorry, I came without notice. Can I come in? The old man replied with an apology and said: Actually, you can’t come in. I had an exhausting day and I need some peace. You should have called before coming. Maybe you can visit me at the end of the week. The friend replied with understanding, apologized again and left…

I remember this scene on Sunday morning at eight. The alarm woke me at seven, then I remembered that it’s Sunday, I can sleep until noon, I happily went back to sleep. I woke up again to a light knocking on our door. It’s eight in the morning, everyone is asleep, everyone is tired after a week of studying or working. I think I’m the only one who heard the knocking. Whoever this person is, their importance isn’t greater than my sleeping until noon. I won’t open the door. The more they waited, the louder the knocking got, and more persistent, to the point where I thought it might be the house owner coming angrily because we were late with the rent, only to remember that the house is ours.

Someone gave up their sleep to see who’s knocking on the door like that at eight in the morning, at this time, and with this kind of knocking, they must be needing something important. 

They opened the door, and a voice mixed with laughter said: I woke you up?

Clearly, she wasn’t serious with her question after all that knocking. She’s a member of our family, coming from some village.

Here, I remembered the scene from the movie and I thought, could I go and refuse to let her in as the old man did with his friend, Could I say: You can’t visit us without notice, especially not at eight in the morning on a Sunday? I can’t do or say any of that because our customs prevent us from doing it, our education prevents us from speaking the truth and pushes us to hide our anger behind a fake smile, just to avoid appearing impolite despite their disrespect for personal space and comfort. And I still wonder, as Dostoevsky did: Why are we so excessive in our politeness? Why don’t we simply tell the donkey that it’s a donkey?

-Unes