What Our Traditions Tell Us about Growing Old
By Rabbi Barbara Aiello
“Hey, Stan, that’s quite a handle you got there!” Macey shouted in surprise as he noticed the giant bandage on his friend, Stan’s hand. And indeed the mass of tape and gauze was enormous and yes the bandage on his friend’s hand looked to be the size of a door handle on a minivan. “Man, what happened to you?”
Stan’s face reddened. “I know this is gonna sound cuckoo but I did this to myself.” Seems Stan had purchased a new calculator, one with big numbers and easier to see. The calculator came packaged in a hard plastic container. Stan tried everything to open the “darn thing,” but nothing worked. In frustration Stan grabbed a screwdriver and began to pound the plastic packaging. In his fury he mistakenly pounded his own hand, resulting in a trip to the emergency room and nine stitches.
“Is it me or are these packages just too hard to open?” Stan’s lament is a common one. In fact there is even a formal name for what Stan and millions of others are experiencing each time they try to pry open a new purchase.
According to Wikipedia, “It’s called “wrap rage” or “package rage,” the common names for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open packaging.”
The citation goes on to say that “people can be injured while opening difficult packaging; cutting tools pose a sharp hazard to the person opening the package…” to which Stan unfortunately agrees.
Sadly Stan is not alone. The problem is so pervasive that in 2003 the Daily Telegraph coined the term and in the subsequent 20 plus years, more and more has been written about the phenomenon that is particularly challenging and often dangerous for senior citizens.
Wikipedia cites a 2006 article in Consumer Reports that featured the magazine’s Oyster Award, given to products with the hardest to open packaging. Intrigued, comedian Stephen Colbert put it to the test on his television program. Like Stan, Colbert tried using a knife to open a plastic-bound calculator and like Stan the comedian was unsuccessful.
A recent study documents the myriad ways consumers try to get around the problem. The study lists unsafe tools such as razor blades, box cutters, snips and ice picks used in purchasers’ attempts to open packages and 71% of respondents reported that “They had been injured while trying to open food packaging.” The most common injury respondents had from trying to open packaging was “a cut finger, followed by a cut hand, sprained wrist, bruised hand and strained shoulder muscle.”
What can be done? Some companies are listening to customer complaints, especially from senior citizens who are demanding that packaging become easier for them to open. Their complaints have resulted in a rise of perforated packing materials and easy to pull “tear strips.” But for Stan and so many others it’s not enough.
In parasha Vayikrah we read, “You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind.” We interpret this prohibition to mean that we should not make life more difficult for those who are already challenged. Like Stan and like millions of consumers, especially seniors, who are fighting and losing the battle against potentially dangerous packaging, make your voices heard and push companies to take complaints seriously. As Bubby and Zayde would say, ”Enough already! Genug!”
For ten years Rabbi Barbara Aiello served the Aviva Campus for Senior Life as resident rabbi. Her most popular columns are now published in her new book, “Aging Jewishly,” available on Amazon books. Rabbi Barbara now lives and works in Italy where she is rabbi of Italy’s first Reconstructionist synagogue.
