Out of Her Mind!

I cannot believe how much the weather has changed in just a week. It is all sunny and gorgeous out in Jerusalem, the only remnants of last week's storm are little random piles of snow left on the sidewalks. Yes, we had our 2 cm. of snow this year and went through our annual snow panic mode-stock up on essentials for the 48 hour block down of the city. School canceled, work canceled. On the hour snow reports on television. People driving from the Tel Aviv area to see our beautiful city covered in white (except, well, it wasn't "covered"). Those of you from larger cities must find it as amusing as I do.

So it's in this beautiful weather that I was walking back from the shuk (open air market) the other day after having bought these pretty ramekins which inspired me to sing "I feel prrretty", when I thought about how South Americans pronounce "her" (as in "...well bred and mature and out of her mind!"). I wondered what kind of conditioning their throats go through as a result of speaking Spanish for years that makes them open their mouth wider as opposed to deeper. Then I tried saying "her" in the other accents I know. It was a lot of fun. Yes I do things like that on the street. Once upon a time I was embarrassed to be seen in all my craziness, but ever since I found the road to happiness, I have stopped caring about what others will think of me.

Sigh... That would have been a wonderful declaration if it were true... You see, I have found happiness, I do not deny that. If you were to ask me how I got there, well that's a long story. All I know is that when I glance at self help books and various little new age quotes about happiness, I find them hilarious. There is no formula to happiness! Do you think the search would still be going on if we had already figured out how to get there, if there was a "one size fits all" solution?? How does that even make sense to anyone? I have come to the conclusion that this very elusive concept can never be found if looked for. It is not acquired by doing certain actions. It is not achieved by acquiring certain things. Quite the opposite-it is a state of being that when one is in it, gives tremendous significance to whatever mundane thing you are doing. I am happy when I mop the floors, not because the mopping is such a life affirming and wonderfully joyous occasion (yeah, right!) of its own right, but rather because I already possess the basic happiness that brings it to a new level. It is actually a bit like how ordinary food becomes holy on Shabbat, but I do not want to get into a whole religious lecture here, it is not the place and I am certainly not the person! For me, happiness turned out to be the result of a long process (which is still going on) where I learned to be true to myself and give myself what I need. So what if I am a little crazy? I accept it, like I accept my idiocy. So what if I like to sing to myself on the street? Maybe I am still not comfortable enough to brush off what others think of me, but at least now I can turn to them indignantly and smile. Yes, I am singing "I feel pretty", you got a problem with that?

Speaking of cute songs, the story of berrrale must be told. A few years ago I came back to my office one day after lunch to find a little snail made of gummy candy-quite like the cute little guy right here-perched on top of my computer screen.

It turns out one of my colleagues got bored and decided to test out his arts and crafts talents on me. He was astonished to find out that I didn't know the berrale song that goes with it, so he was kind enough to sing it and bring me up to speed. Berrale is a snail whose friends call him out of his house to play while tempting him with a cake their mother will make. Not having grown up in Israel, silly children's songs are the kind of things we miss out on. Not to worry though, it wasn't too much of a culture shock for me-we have a similar song in Turkish for a ladybird. Although I think there the bribe is in the form of slippers. Because if there's something a ladybird can't resist, it's slippers? Aaanyway, from that day on, the name stuck and I have been berrale. The only problem is that a lot of Israelis seem to carry the nickname (and most of them are annoyingly male) so I have had to add a 3rd "r" to make it mine...

As for the fate of my little berrale at work? If you were disgusted by the idea of gummy candy sitting atop a computer screen, you will not want to know just how long he ended up staying there! He was so cute that I didn't have the heart to remove him until the inevitable happened, Passover came along and he went his leaven way...