Elie’s our secret weapon when dealing with the ever-frustrating cellular phone company. He has incredible patience…and most often ends up making the salesperson realize they are being absurd. It is another facet of his personality that has sharpened over the last year in the army.
He’s been calling the phone company for the last week while enjoying a break from the army. A ridiculous number of calls later, he finally explained to the phone representative that tomorrow he goes back to the army and they either deal with him…or deal with his father in English. Since the woman speaks almost no English, she was anxious to arrange a time to meet at our offices to discuss a new business package.
She was trying to arrange it for today, but wasn’t sure. “How about tomorrow?” she asked Elie.
Elie explained that he couldn’t meet her tomorrow; that he’d been trying for the better part of a week to arrange this meeting and there was simply no more time. He explained he was a soldier, on a short break from the army, but the woman was bound and determined to push for a meeting tomorrow.
“Fine,” said Elie. “I’ll tell the enemy to wait.”
It’s funny. It’s cute. It also has its serious side. With ten rockets hitting Israel today, about 20 yesterday; 50 the day before, and 30 or 40 per day several times last week, we all know we have enemies. Perhaps the part that touched me was Elie’s acceptance of this basic fact of our existence and put some of life’s every day frustrations into perspective at the same time.
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