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King David’s calculator
In the labyrinth of Jerusalem’s Old City, just about any scene could have appeared around the next corner.Already that long, hot day I’d turned down a hundred different lanes – all seemingly identical to begin with. I’d slapped the soles of my locally-made sandals down many kilometres of smooth stone paths and had been disoriented not only by the maze-like layout of the ancient city, but also from the giddying sense of possibility: what would I discover next!? I hadn’t fully absorbed one marvel before I was rushing on to find the next, so anxious was I to squeeze out every sensation possible from this city which was my temporary home.
I’d turned one way and had been confronted by a busy lane of market stalls, with vendors aggressively trying to sell me everything from frankincense and myrrh to Spongebob Squarepants t-shirts written in Hebrew. I’d turned a different way and had found myself suddenly staring down the barrel of a submachine gun, firmly held by an 18 year old soldier keeping watch for terrorists. He had chuckled when he saw the startled expression on my face. Yet another direction – an upward climb this time – brought me onto the flat roof of an ancient mud-brick building with a spectacular view of the Mount of Olives, where Christ had been betrayed and arrested 2000 years ago. Following a stream of locals and tourists through a metal detector had brought me to the crowded Western Wall, Judaism’s most holy site, where devout men and women mourn the loss of their Temple. The setting sun had started to paint the city with the distinctive hue that gives it the name ‘Jerusalem of Gold’, when I abruptly came face to face with a statue of the boy warrior David. This rather modest figure wasn’t the most striking or emotional sight I’d seen that day, but nonetheless I’ll never forget it. For not only did the giant Goliath’s severed head lie at the conqueror David’s feet, but also a distinctly 21st century calculator. ‘I calculated the risk,’ David’s confident poise – hand on hip – seemed to suggest, ‘and decided it was worth taking on Goliath.’
It was just another one of those marvellously idiosyncratic moments in time – treasured by all travellers – which I gleefully captured in my camera for viewing long after the forgotten piece of office equipment would have no doubt been reclaimed by its rightful owner.
(Published by Sight magazine in January 2010)
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