I don’t really have just one biography, it depends on who’s asking. If it’s The Unsafe Journal, then my name is Ido, an artist from Israel. I grew up in Haifa, a city shared by Arabs and Jews that was once a model of coexistence. Given everything that is happening, and I say this without a hint of irony, I’m saving the irony for the year 2026.

I’m the kind of person who appreciates a good plot twist: John doesn’t want to marry Michelle, but he does want to work for her father’s company. A carburetor leak lands him at a motel for the night, where he encounters Tom, a lawyer working for the Devil, who exploits John’s greed. Before Tom became a lawyer, he was a law student on his way to graduating with honors. He slipped on a rotten banana and broke his leg. But a confrontation with the paramedic led Tom to kill him and hijack the ambulance.

One moment, there is a semblance of order. The next, everything falls apart, for better or worse. God, in all His glory, is revealed through the rotten bananas, through the violent standard deviation that diverts John toward hell and delivers Michelle from tragedy.

“I’m Jack’s inflamed sense of rejection.”
“I’m Jack’s complete lack of surprise.”
“I’m Jack’s smirking revenge.”

We waited for the moment the order would break. We waited for the Zen master’s finger, which once pointed at the moon, to turn its gaze toward the banana. Therefore, we wait for the transgression.

“I’m Jack’s broken heart.”
“I’m Jack’s wasted life.”

Because the banana wasn’t just placed there by chance, it is the “way out” from the Self, from the narrow, capitalist, materialist, and utilitarian narrative into the transcendental. And the transcendental always demands a sacrifice, the lone individual sacrificed by society, by the couple, by its mission, or by the chaos that is always lurking, shrouded in tales of innocence, harmony, and love.

And that chaos, if we do not acknowledge it, it will surely acknowledge us.

That’s why I like bananas, especially when they are rotten and slippery.

(Quotes and themes inspired by “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk.)