Supermarket Sweep

At the end of that great novel by Plato called *Republic*, Odysseus is spotted in the underworld standing amid a crowd of other souls in front of a big box store. It’s Black Friday in Hades. They are all waiting around impatiently for the doors to open so they can rush in and choose their next lives. All of them except Odysseus. He alone is calm. He alone is in no rush. When the doors finally open, he remains outside. The rest of them storm in. They push and shove and grab desperately for the “good lives”—those with money, power, or renown. It’s a madhouse scene, but it’s over soon enough. Odysseus waits. As the shoppers begin to thin out, he picks up a shopping basket and enters the store. Before long he’s the last customer in there. Little is left on the shelves. He walks up and down the empty aisles looking for what he wants. At last he finds it in the household cleaners section: “the life of a private individual who does his own work and is bothered by no one.” He places it in his basket. At the checkout, the cashier asks: “Did you find everything you were looking for?” Odysseus just smiles and pays cash.