Selling Our Car

Today as I was washing our car from the nasty stains from the nearby pollen trees, I thought about our car. Watching the watch wash those stains away with the power jet stream water gun, I thought how much Ivry would enjoy watching this mini movie in action. But he won't since we're selling this reliable vehicle for a dream to be fulfilled in our journey to the States.

Ivry reminds me very much of myself watching the automatic car wash in the seventies. There was a particular place my father preferred , somewhere on ninth avenue. I was particular about the jet streams from above, wondering if they would ever get me wet from inside. Not a chance.

Those stubborn stains didn't stay for very long but it was a lot of work. But I hummed, got in some 'me' time and watched the kibbutznicks do their Friday morning errands on their bikes as I watched each and every one go by from my post, unobserved. It was just the right place to be also.

Kibbutz is an action based cosmic universe. It didn't take long for people to figure out our plans when Haim and I decided to move to the States. So now I have a little privacy in the shade of washing our car. Something I probably also won't do for a while.

The car has some serious history; from the rides to and from Beit Shean and Afula while I was studying for my second degree and then from Ein-Gev and Katzrin and finally from Kibbutz Sde Nehemiya. Driving to the wedding alongside the Jordan River and then driving to our honeymoon. Bringing home Ivry from the hospital.

The epic of Sde Nehemiya was just a unexpected tale. Just when David, the local bus driver (also a kibbutznicks) came to wash his big sized van alongside mine, we got to talking about his experiences with people tracking in mud. Although I have never had that kind of unseemingly experience that only becomes a car's dirty laundry, I found myself enjoying the humble talk. One dimensional. It was David who I first met on the kibbutz who just recently got divorced and I rented his bachelor's apartment. In that same apartment, Haim and I embraced each other for the first time and we talked about a future together.

Soon, it will come time to sell this beauty that I love so much, and make room for new things in our lives. But I can't help but remember David, and how I mocked his simple mindedness. Now as life takes a more complicated turn, I embrace simplicity and the one dimensional thinking it offers.