March 25, 2010 – Defining The Group

Amazing how much energy I’m getting from the News. Yesterday I scrubbed the floor while Barak and Bibi exhibited the etiquette of diplomacy (How do you say “zubo” in English). In the morning the possibility of a coalition between Bibi and Tsipi eased my need to clean house and I let myself drift over to Ikea. I’d just read some article in the Tribune about “sharing” in various types of communities and some idea that in a Wallmart line in Missouri there would be a greater degree of sharing behavior then in a small community which hunts or farms for their existence. It was something I skimmed between cleaning up the feathers from the pillow I opened in a reckless moment and swallowing a skimpy breakfast, but it didn’t enter my consciousness until I started maneuvering my way through the crowds. I kept imagining making a short like Guy Ben Ner in which the family is filmed as if they were living in one of the settings in Ikea, and Ezi and I had a parodic discussion about capitalism, using the line from Ben Ner “Someday, my son, all this will be yours.” But reality occasionally breaks into imaginary situations, and in the middle of choosing wine glasses I got a call from Dynamica, a company that roped me into getting a superfluous insurance package on my cellphone a few years ago when I wasn’t paying attention and I haven’t been able to figure out how to contact ever since. The money comes out of my visa every month, but only last week did I get a phone number to cancel. The cancellation didn’t take, and they were now calling to convince me that it was essential for me to continue. After a quarter of an hour of empathic denial, I passed the phone to my mild-mannered husband, who began on the same level, but gradually broke into full-fledged screaming. As we passed through housewares, he began to literally spell out “c-a-n-c-e-l” at maximum volume, and although I knew it was not proper public behavior I followed behind cheering him on. What about the others, you ask? How did they react to this invasion of their privacy? Conscious of the article I skimmed in the morning, conscious of Munro Leaf’s wonderful book “How to Behave and Why,” I watched the shoppers passing by. Very few paid any attention. Of the few Hebrew speakers, the men smiled and made sympathetic comments. One man even said, “Tell them off for all of us.”