Picture this, an organisation that tackles marital challenges organises an outing for mothers-in-law and their daughters- in-law. Two buses are hired to pick each respective group from two different pick-up points. Both parties are aware of their destination and who they are going to be meeting.
laughing it off with Blaah Dhee
Unfortunately, the bus ferrying the mothers in-law is involved in an accident and all passengers perish. When news of the tragedy reaches the daughters-in-law who have already arrived at the destination, a dark cloud engulfs the resort place as it becomes a cauldron of wailing.
While almost all of the daughters-in-law weep mildly, each mumbles her own words in between the sobbing as if trying to get an explanation from the Almighty as to why He allowed such a painful occurrence to take place. To anyone who bothers to pay attention, the mumblings are meaningless at first.
Then there is one who attracts a lot of attention as she wails the loudest and her mumblings are somewhat more distinct. “Vambononokereiko! Dai vavamirira ndazorora kani. [What delayed her? If only they had waited for her, my misery would be over],” she cries outloud.
A close neighbour who knows this woman is shocked as what the daughter-in law is implying sinks into her mind. She just cannot believe her ears. For, from what she had gathered earlier on, this woman’s mother-in-law had not been in the bus when disaster struck. By the time she got to the pick-up point the bus had already departed.
Her missing the bus turned out to be a blessing in disguise for her. But her daughter-in-law curses that stroke of luck and thinks otherwise. She wishes her mother-in-law had not missed the bus and instead met the same fate that befell the rest of the passengers on the bus.
When our mate (popularly known as Regular at the bottle store) finished telling us this story, we were left shell-shocked at the level of hatred that can grow between these women (daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law). Come to think about it, as married men, we tend to turn a blind eye to the tug of war between these two women, yet the duel centres on us (as sons and husbands of these feuding women).
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Having brain-stormed on the matter at length, we resolved to lay bare our minds to these ever-fighting women so that they may be left with a developed appreciation of why at times we appear like we do not care. The truth is, we very much care, but find ourselves torn in between. We suffer in silence just like the grass when two elephants fight. What can the grass say after all?
For fear of the traditional belief that anyone who disrespects his mother will forever be cursed until one undergoes some ritualistic cleansing ceremony (kutanda botso), which in itself is denigrating, we thought it wise to address our concerns to our wives;
To our beloved wives,
We, as your husbands, have over the years found ourselves being drawn into your traditional feuds with our equally beloved mothers.
Your continued fighting with our mothers is tearing us apart and has had a very negative impact on our lives as your husbands and our mothers’ sons. It is with that in mind that we sat down as husbands and deliberated on how best we could help the situation.
In our deliberations, we made some very chilling discoveries — chilling in the sense that you may misconstrue our reasoning as the first sign of us forsaking you, our wedded wives. Far from that notion, as your loving husbands, we feel that what we will shortly reveal to you in this letter is the naked truth that will set you free as there is no malice behind it. We say it with never-ending love, lest there will be ever-ending love.
You and our mothers bare a striking resemblance in all natural spheres in as much as what a man desires from the human specie called woman. This leaves us confused and torn in between when it comes to making a choice between the two of you. Owing to that, we decided to zero in on how each one of you [our mothers and you] affects us.
We all know that the first cut is the deepest. The first man a woman sleeps with, will forever be engraved in her memory. The same goes for a man. We are no exception to that despite being your wedded husbands.
As you may be aware, the first naked bodies of women our eyes ever set on when we came into this world were of our very own mothers. Not only that, our first impression of how much a woman’s body exudes warmth came through the first women we shared beds with, our mothers.
It is from these same women, our mothers, that we learnt about the sweetness of kissing. For, as soon as we were delivered, nurses took us to our mothers who planted the very first kiss on our lips as our naked bodies touched, leaving a life-long impression.
Earlier on, we told you of how similar you two are. Suppose either of you had no breasts, we shudder to imagine how that would impact on the generality of men. You know how valuable those assets are as applicable to men and women relations. Breasts are an integral part of every woman. Remember how we your husbands never tire of playing with those things even though our mothers weaned us off theirs several years ago.
Now, imagine what impression our mothers’ breasts left on us! Our mothers’ breasts were our first toys and more importantly, our source of food. We still cherish those moments when we suckled. Hence we still do it, albeit on yours, our beloved wives. Frankly speaking, who can destroy that bond between our mothers and us?
We rest our case.
Loving Husbands
