out of petrol and appreciation

i hate those 'only in israel' lines.

personally i'd be willing to forego every taxi driver who wants to set me up with his nephew, every matza pizza with fake shrimps and even my right to ask people what they earn, for some good old mundane customer service, a decent salary and the ability to buy (and use) a car without crippling myself financially. after all, why does it have to be one or the other? surely a truly jewish state should be one where there is both an equitable balance of wealth and neighbors who will look out for you.

why do i bring this up? well with all my moaning for israel just to be normal already and to stop putting idiosyncratic niceties on pedestals, it seems i may just be taking some things for granted.

last saturday night, on return from a weekend with friends in the netanya area, i found myself out of petrol (gas) 1.5 km away from the Sha'ar Hagay/Bet Shemesh junction of Road 1 on my way back to Jerusalem.
the reasons for this mishap are not worth going into but suffice to say when a broken petrol guage costs 600 nis to mend (and that was what it cost 2 years ago) in the current economic climate one may be loath to make the payment, preferring to rely on the kilometer counter instead.

having found out that my car does more or less exactly 400km to the tank and that my tow service charges 170nis call out fee plus the price of the petrol to come to the rescue, i decided to walk the 1.5km down the highway and cross over to the petrol station on the other side to get the needed fuel. the fact that it was dark (it was 8pm) or that in another country a woman walking alone along the side of the road could be in considerable danger hardly occured to me. i was too chuffed over the fact that this time (yes, i know, no comment) i had a water bottle in my car that could be used to be cut and moulded into a funnel for the petrol.

i had hardly walked two mins until a car stopped ahead of me and reversed back. the driver opened the door and enquired what was wrong. i got in, again without a beat (the car had gush katif stickers so while i knew straight away that we were politically incompatible, i had no suspicion that he was a terrorist crusing for an opportunity). then this nice nameless man dropped me the distance i needed and before i knew it i had crossed one of israel's main highways and was at the petrol station.

while i was having an empty window wash container filled up with petrol a driver asked me directions to the town of ofakim. not altogether altruistically i told him what i knew and tagged a request for a lift back down the road on to the end of my helpful answer. he agreed straight away, even waiting and holding off his journey until i had been served.

all in all, what could have been an endless nightmare was no more than a 15 minute setback leaving me with a wonderfully warm feeling of community and self-sufficiency. and i hardly blinked.

could this have happened in another country? that may be irrelevant. more important to be grateful that it can happen in the country i call home. after all if life is a journey and not a destination, it would seem advisable to look out onto the road and appreciate the view along the way.