Machines Revisited

Avi and I had our most meaningful conversation in the last 20 minutes of my stay with the Arizunis.  Avi was driving into Be'er Sheva to deliver to the shuk so I caught a ride with him.  When we passed דלק on the road I tried to explain Daleks and Doctor Who to him.  Which of course became a conversation about the Matrix.  After five or ten minutes we lapsed into silence followed by us both remarking simultaneously that real life isn't that far off from either.

Most of the world spends their days doing relatively the same thing day in and day out.  A small screw in a large machine, Avi described it as.  It's hard to see that you're even a part of something or that work makes a perceptible difference until you've been doing it for several years.  Maybe that's satisfying for you and maybe it's not.  You're "free" though so you work more and more hoping to one day earn enough money to get out and do whatever you want.  There are brief moments in there when everything is perfect and happy but that always has to end because work is always looming.  Or payments need to be made on something.  Or you have other obligations.  You don't really have a choice.  But when you're on a farm.  Well, for the most part.  You can do what you want.  At least here.  Ezuz was the middle of nowhere.  Who's going to check on you.  Avi owns the farm outright and scavenges all of his building materials from the shut down IDF base nearby.  So what does he need to buy?  A thing or two every once in a while.  Clothes.  Medical expenses.  Gas once a month.  So he sells fruit when he needs to.  Otherwise, they feed themselves.  He called it a little piece of paradise outside of the system.

Now I'm not going to say that he's right or that this is how the world works.  But that's how it feels most of the time.  Living in the middle of nowhere with only what you can grow isn't for everyone but for the most part it suited me just fine.  There has to be some kind of medium.  Living in a city and working a regular job isn't the worst thing that could possibly happen.  But it was refreshing to hear someone explain their life choices in words that had run through my mind for such a long time.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.