Wait, I told him. I just need to arrange a cellular package abroad, and I immediately evacuate.
We sat together drinking coffee in the terminal, waiting for our flight to Poland, as part of a group.
"What do you need to arrange?" he asked aloud.
"A cellular package, so I can have a phone abroad."
Then came the look. That unmistakable look. The look that says, in fact, why are we sitting here, at the Aroma Kosher branch of Terminal 1 at the airport, talking among ourselves as two human beings who belong to the same time and place and to the same chapter in human history.
Why don't you pack the leftover sandwich, drag your small suitcase and accompany me on a quick drive to Kiryat Shaul, where I'll place you, my friend, in a pit I'll mine using an app designed for this, and even place a small flower on your elderly body. They are no longer with us, a ridiculous man who arranges a "cellular package" for himself before boarding a plane to Europe. Why don't you telegraph your upcoming arrival? Why don't we go on board for a moment, light our pipes and insult the headlines of the latest "Let's get on board"?
• • •
The bitterness of the gray-salute anxieties is the one that no one speaks of, for fear of overwhelming it and thereby attacking it and giving it life. This is the anxiety of the tinsmith lol - a term from the field of psychology and ageism that dates back to the days of the world, but in these times of rapid transitions between different levels of civilization it is much more common and present. The essence of tinsmith anxiety ha: a serfdom fear of the day when there will be a slowdown and an unreconcilable gap will begin to open between them and the technological world.
They're true, now they're completely in business. I mean, you can't necessarily build an entire product using an AI app, and you don't even always understand what the word "cookies" means in the message that just popped up, how the hell do you turn off automatic spelling and who saw my glasses and why everything disappeared in this annoying house - but overall they're really in business, only everything is done with great ceremony and pathos, and when the procedure ends they let out a sigh of relief full of satisfaction and feel that they're completely in the loop. But the anxiety, the anxiety, is always there. Tinsmith anxiety hahahaha.
Then he gave it away, the bastard. He gave a long tinker, and although it's hard to turn up the volume with a guttural letter, he managed to do it so that half the terminal heard and turned his face towards the pair: an informed man and a challenged man, peace be upon him. Man of Tomorrow and Man of Yesterday; A man wakes up and a man crumbles.
"Say, are you serious?" he asked. "Who buys cellular packages today? Buying E-sims."
• • •
I must say that for the most part I knew what it was about. This isn't the first time I've heard this term. The Essenes were a Jewish group during the Second Temple period described in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, but I didn't fully understand how it was related, and he explained to me, in the same condescending tone, that an E-SIM is an electronic SIM that you install through an app and then, for 5 euros, you use your phone abroad just like in Israel.
All you have to do is check that you have a device that supports this whole business, download an app, sign up, take a photo and scan your passport, choose a payment method and pay, and that's it. When you land abroad, you will transfer the phone from the regular SIM to the new, electronic SIM card, and then you actually have a local device, which does not support phone calls, but provides a perfect connection to the Internet and more than that, as we know, we don't really need. The last time I had a phone call was with a donor of Rachel's Tomb.
Then, the bastard Nathan gave a long, half-terminal tinker, turned his face towards the pair: an informed man and a challenged man, peace be upon him. Man of Tomorrow and Man of Yesterday; A man wakes up and a man crumbles. T.N.C.B.E.
And it was bitter. Very bitter. And since all this happened after I had already ordered a package and paid for it, two contradictory processes happened to me at the same time: one - uncontrollable rage towards the cellular company and a strong urge to reach a facility from its facilities and burn it to the ground, and the second - an equally strong urge to prove to the person in front of me that I was just as informed as he was, and that he would take this tinsmith and push him somewhere.
He won't patronize me here in front of people and make me feel what I really am: an idiot. He's going to regret that tinsmith for a long time.
• • •
"Tell me," I began, loudly, "do you really think I don't know that nonsense, E-Sim? Do you think you're renewing something for me? Of course I know, and obviously I already have two hundred such apps. But I want the phone sh-l-y, do you hear? My phone! Not another phone to browse. And also what about phone calls? WhatsApp, OK, but what about landline calls? What does a landline phone mean? Stationary! Stationary!
"What happens if I now have to talk to someone at the property tax or Ichilov or Beit Shalom Aleichem or the yeshivas committee? That I should try on WhatsApp, great sage? And you think I have the time and energy for all these procedures, scanning and photographing and on the other side and the date of issue and downloads, what am I some bored old man who has nothing to do? You? No no no. I want my phone - abroad. Do you hear? As in Jerusalem - also in Krakow. The same. And we haven't even talked about you canceling - just canceling! Your Sim. And what after that? What if he doesn't come back? Answer me!", now I literally shouted. "What if he doesn't come back?!"
• • •
The truth is, at that point he didn't hear me anymore. I think he absorbed his mental state a bit and walked away deaf. But it didn't change anything to me anymore. Adrenaline is a powerful substance, it should be said, and I was overwhelmed and full of satisfaction. I knew full well that I had succeeded with determination and no sense in pushing back the puff and postponing the end of the next meeting, which I knew would come, but now at least I'm a little more prepared for it.
And in Krakow, as we were touring and studying, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a terrible rage. It's time to move on to the second stage and plan the revenge on the cellular company, which sold me this nothingness without informing me of the other, cheap and simple option. How they are not ashamed, how.
I felt like I was exploding, I bought me a bottle of sheared and went out to the gazebo to drink, relax and plan my steps, and when I whistled I pulled my notebook out of my jacket pocket, that guy suddenly came from the tinsmith and asked if I could get my phone for a second, he needed a regular call to the E.S. support center.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us
