The Zen of Permitting

I accepted a permitting job of a Mikweh in Tel Aviv. Mikweh is a ritual bath. Females have to immerse themselves in holy mikweh water after menstruation and then are pure to serve their husbands. It was explained to me that the client was the son of the head of the religious council and the submittal is just a formality and will be approved with no observations. I asked for a low fee.

After submitting my plan and protocol, I was obliged to come to a meeting with the bureaucrat in charge of approving the permit. When I saw her, I recognized her immediately, she was Ronit, the green-eyed smiling monster that tortured me ten years ago with a similar job and I wrote a protest letter to her bosses. I realized immediately that she will never approve my permit. In the meeting, she described patiently (two hours) all the details she wants in the document to be submitted, I submissively wrote down her list of impossible desires.

I was so depressed that for a week I could not touch the project. My mind wandered around it, trying to find my balance and the feel of the problem. Like sumo wrestlers performing preparatory exercises waiting for the zen moment to arrive, my mind made rounds and rounds around the problem while never touching the file. When the zen moment comes, the two naked giants face each other and attack, and the actual contest is over in less than a minute. This morning I felt focused and strong enough to open the feared Mikwe file.

In ten minutes I knew what to do.