Luxury Slaves

The other night, around 5:30pm, just as I should have been getting my kids in the bath, I was compelled to take them to my favorite store in Beit Shemesh for some pre-Yom Tov shopping. It’s like a “Home Goods” type store, but not nearly as pretty-looking. Of course they were super excited to go somewhere, so off we went. Anyways, one night without a shower isn’t so terrible…

After we got the few things I wanted, we were about to pay, when a delivery guy walks in looking for the car that’s blocking the entrance to the drop-off part of the store. Oops! What can I say, it’s the Israeli in me. By now, it was already dark, and he helped me back my car up, right into the car behind me. Thanks, guy!

I cringed as I heard the crunch of metal, and someone very close to me was blurting out a whole bunch of expletives. (Who knew the baby could talk so well at one year old?) Two women who happened to be near my car rushed over to the other car, then yelled, “Don’t worry, nothing happened!” Phew! I was so relieved.

I went out to see what “nothing” meant, and I saw a minor, 1-inch dent on the edge of the car, right above the tire. (The car was perpendicular to mine.) There was no scratch. “No big deal,” I thought. Sure- no big deal, until the manager of the store runs out after she heard what happened. A freakout attack was imminent.

“How could you do this?! Don’t you see where you’re going?? I paid 100,000 shekels for this car! This car is very important to me! I take very good care of my car!” and on and on and on. I don’t know how I managed to remain quiet, and I was doing pretty well- until she demanded my information. Oh, no, she di-in’t!

It was on. I began by trying to apologize a hundred times. That didn’t work. I tried explaining that there wasn’t proper lighting and I didn’t see the car. That didn’t work either. I tried blaming the delivery guy who bolted 3 nanoseconds after I hit the car. Hey, didn’t he have to deliver something?? When nothing else worked, I tried showing her that her car was sticking out into the middle of the parking lot.

She ignored me and demanded my insurance information. Well, I wasn’t about to give it. For a lousy one-inch dent? Did she really think that I was going to raise my insurance costs for at least the entire next year, just so she could fix a tiny dent that no one could see? So I did what any semi-normal person would do. She wanted to claim on my insurance? Fine! I started taking pictures of her car, in case I would have to prove that half her car was sticking out into the parking lot.

I also took pictures of her license plate, though I’m not really sure why. Maybe it was because I wanted to show that I wasn’t about to be scared by her scream tactics. I felt like telling her, “Lady, I know all about scream tactics. I’m a mom, remember?”

Anyhow, I still haven’t received a phone call, but I’m afraid to go back to my favorite store.

What’s the point of this story?

Her ranting and raving proved a great point: she was a luxury slave. She worked for her luxury car. Much of her hard work went towards her inflated car payment. Gee, who does that remind me of? Most of the western world, perhaps?

Aren’t we all luxury slaves to one degree or another? Why do most of us work so hard? Why do we give so much of our time and energy to our jobs? Isn’t much of the reason so that we can have nice things?

Living in Israel has given me a different perspective on the need for luxury items: we just don’t need them. Who needs a new car every 39 months? Do we really need the latest Iphone version 85? Was version 84 really so bad? There is no end to the number of improvements in the latest cars, phones, and computers. And don’t think fashion is excluded from this. Everyone knows that the hottest styles are on the racks even before we’re able to finish wearing last season’s!

I wonder how much money is spent on just luxury items each year- it’s a great exercise to do, especially if you’re trying to cut costs. I think the biggest problem with luxury spending is that we are trained to feel that we can’t go without them. G-d forbid we suffer from the deprivation of seeing someone else with the latest Macbook Air when we’re stuck with our Toshiba! Oy, the torture!

Here’s another great exercise- add up all of the hours you work each month to pay off your luxury lifestyle. How many of those hours could have been spent reading to your kids, or playing soccer with them? How many smiles have you traded in for hours of reports and headaches? How many romantic evenings have you sacrificed for late nights at the office?

Is this really the way you want to live?

With the western economic bubble at the bursting point, isn’t it time we re-arranged our priorities? Everyone knows money doesn’t make us happy- so why waste our lives in slavery? Springtime is a wonderful opportunity for rebirth and a fresh start- use this time to refocus your life. What are your spiritual goals? Are you really happy? Why not? These are the questions you should be focusing on, and I am confident that if you re-prioritize your goals, you will rid yourselves of the platinum-and-diamond chains in no time!