Administrations and Pomegranates

For most of my adult life, I was repelled by administrative tasks—all the preparations for life in this world: organizing, arrangements, delays, forms, packaging, and dismantling. I had a vague sense of injustice surrounding them, like exerting immense effort to peel a stubborn pomegranate. The feeling of cosmic injustice intensified mainly when the peeling was close to half or more of the pomegranate.

In the past year, a thin stream of awareness continued to drip consistently onto the sharpened stone of "administrative injustice" and rounded it a bit more, to its current state—a stone comfortable to hold, even pleasant to the touch.

I managed to distill a few drops from the stream that flowed around the stone and rounded it to comfort:

The first drop—the Buddhist approach, which speaks of the human suffering involved in trying to fill the void or avoid the unnecessary. Releasing the grip on a peel-less pomegranate or achieving a precise balance of peel and fruit.

The second drop—"you lose some, you gain some." Recognizing that this is what needs to be done for something else I wanted to do. Not good or bad, just what it is. Peel it. Eat it.

The third drop—an almost incidental and casual conversation with an acquaintance who initiated the establishment of a camp in 'Burning Man'. I wondered how he coped with the endless preparations beforehand and the arrangements thereafter, and he simply answered that it was part of the enjoyment for him. I listened to him and realized within myself that there is another way.

For about a year, I felt that I understood and internalized all this. Last month, an opportunity arose that tested the theory, and in the days that followed, there was a formulated realization that theory and practice met comfortably.

When we decided to cancel our annual visit to Israel due to the circumstances of Corona, we decided to take advantage of the three weeks we set aside for the visit for a camping trip from California to Washington through Oregon. Without booking places in advance, and with a few clear destinations, mainly one far away that I fantasized about for the past two years in Washington after listening to this: [link]. We packed our car and set out.

This trip included a lot of tent setting up, dismantling, mattress inflating, rolling, cooking, cleaning, arranging, searching for bottle openers, gathering branches, Tetris-boxes and pots, and closing zippers. We mostly stayed to sleep in one place for two nights only, sometimes just one. There were days when we packed in the rain, and days when the end of days was delayed because we couldn't find the campsite that would accept us that night. We worked hard. Physically. We traveled a lot. I got angry at times, mainly at objects, but only because it was their fault.

But it happened, theory and practice met on this trip. Dismantling and folding were a routine part of life for those three weeks. There was no attempt to avoid it, but we became more efficient. We did what we wanted, and part of it was the hard work we put into it every day. Not every time, but generally, I felt good to dismantle, assemble, wash, cook, organize, set up, carry, fill up.

The fact that pomegranates are yummy also helps.