When I told the hairdresser that I have to get home to take out the dog, he warned me against it.  “You shouldn’t be so nice to your children – It’s not good for them as well as you.  I’m sure they don’t want to see you splattered all over the pavement.”  He hadn’t even seen the wildness of this animal.  And my kids think the same thing – but somehow thought all will be well.  But then the hairdresser added that he had left his dog with his parents, and when he returned he was told that the dog disappeared.  “Disappeared!”” he muttered to himself, “They probably left him on a traffic island somewhere.”  

And that put my mind on the subject that keeps coming up in recent days.  The whole concept of the chain of ethics – what do we owe our parents, our children, ourselves, our animals, our friends, our enemies, our teachers, our students, our strangers.  

I just wrote a note to Shlomo Gronich who clearly made a mistake last night when in a concert he used some racial slurs – ironically I believe.  Although the audience laughed the press hasn’t stopped discussing the issue and his apologies have not been accepted, even though his family announced that he’s suffering from dementia.  I must add that I noticed his mind alterations three years ago when I was trying to help him with a song, and today I owe him a letter of support.

This discussion may look like I too am suffering from dementia but I do think the issues are related.  The way I treat my friends is connected to the way I treat my children, their responsibilities as parents and their responsibilities as dog owners. 

And it is connected to the way we treat our neighbors and respect their religion.  It’s all a single fabric.  The parade today of Israeli flags through the streets on Jerusalem as a response to the violence in Temple Mount is also a question of social ethics and responsibility.  

I started today talking about my children leaving their dog with me, and continued with a erring friend, and end with a political issue – because I believe it’s all one issue.  What do you think?

p.s. As for the racial slurs – Gronich said that there was not one chach-chach in the audience, that everyone was a vus-vus.  Now why is it a “compliment” to be called ‘vus-vus’ and a racial slur to be called ‘chach-chach’?  yes, he was definitely joking about our racial sensitivity, in the same way he sings “I have a sympathy for the people who live in tel aviv – with their peeling walls and their stalled busses and the people with no sympathy…”  and other songs that laugh at themselves as well as the audience.  But we have no sense of self-irony any more.