MASADA

Up early to go to Masada, all the shops are closed and all a schoolchildren fill up the streets.

Just getting started with this tour, I cam see why I don't do it this way more often: so much confusion, standing around, everyone looking at everyone else, puzzled, the ineveitable missing person.

Just reading in the local paper that Jerusalem is the poorest city in Israel. It does seem scruffy, but I thought it was because of the crush of tourists. All the tourists don't translate into dollars, or shekels as the case may be. 1/3 of the Jews and 2/3 of the arabs live under the poverty level.

I feel ever so much like a sheep, following a shepherd. It's easy to just zone out, maybe that's why sheep are so placid.
I was planning on walking down from the fortress, in effect breaking put of the group, when the guide began to make the case that to walk would be to inconvenience everyone else. Besides which, people have died doing this. Eventually , sheeplike, I muttered a little baaaaaaa, and hung with the flock. I did want to get an answer to how they got water to the fortress, and since it was the last item on his list, it worked out.
We're down at the Dead Sea now where people are going to cover themselves on mud and float in the water, where you can't sink. I'm going to skip it.
Seeing all the bathers walking around in their euro-suits, you realize that they probably shouldn't.

On the way back? A woman sitting in front asked me where I was from. I said oregon and she said California Close enough when you're 11 time zones away. She and her friend had stayed in tel aviv and were seeing Israel by bus. I shake my head. She lives in San Diego and wants to be on Survivor, or The Amazing Race, or The Mole. She's tried out for all of them.
I'm in uncharted territory.
They ate at Mcdonalds the
night before.I did the best I could I recommended a restaurant near Jaffa, a beautiful Crusader city near where they are staying, but they had never heard of it.

They were fun to talk to, but .....,
I can see why other travellers just shake their heads at Americans.

Back to the Old City, I look around at all the Haredim, the Ultra-orthodox, and for all their pissiness, because they are real pains in the butt for everyone, still you have to admire a culture ( like Buddhism) that respects and encourages a part of their culture to seek what they believe to be the highest good.
Still,As a way to pass time, it is way more fun talking to the women from San Diego.
I can't believe how much I've learned, here in Jerusalem , not being part of a group. Exploring , looking, poking, probing, stumbling , asking, stopping , thinking, I've learned so much.
Especially how to type on this damn keyboard!

I'm not really sure that I'm on the same page as the Jewish Zealots committing suicide at Masada. The two women and three children who hid themselve and saved themselves appeal to a part of me.

The women from San Diego had never heard of Petra. I had to start from scratch.
On how many different levels do we all see the world?
The first woman said that she understands that she is a very forceful personality, that that's why thety didn't pick her for Survivor; the other one said that her friend couldn't even remember her last name. Chuckles.

Speaking of chuckles, as I am typing this, Steve Gremmel calls fr home asking if I want to go golfing. Blast from the other world. Cellphones are so weird. No one knows where you are.
What universe am I calling? My friend, Don Gott, do you realize what different planets we live on ?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone