A quarrel only one person is having

Picture a stallholder in the Manama souq who still tells the story of the neighbour who copied his display years ago. New customers hear it. His sons have heard it a hundred times. The neighbour, who moved to another part of the market long since, has probably forgotten it ever happened.

The point of settling a dispute is to get back to the things that matter. You call it off so the energy can go somewhere useful again.

But some fights stop being about the original wrong. They become something to do. Something to feel. A reason to stay sharp, or a story that explains why things did not go better. At that point the fight is no longer protecting anything. It is just costing.

What makes this strange is that in most of these quarrels, there is only one person still fighting. The other side has moved on, or never knew there was a war. The whole campaign is happening in one head.

Which means the peace can be made in the same place.

Nobody needs to sign anything. No call is required, no apology demanded, no meeting at a neutral café. The stallholder can simply decide the matter is closed, stop telling the story, and spend those minutes talking about what he sells instead of what was done to him.

The other side does not need to be told. They were never part of it anyway.

The quietest truce is the one you sign alone, and it frees the person who signs it more than anyone else.