Right now, we have a bunch of people in our house for Rosh Hashana, and I'm sitting in my room guarding my dog. My dad had her outside on her run where she was barking every minute or so. I told my dad it's not right to have her out there like that, and he said "fine, we can put her in your room". So my poor dog gets shuffled from being outside on the run to caged in my room.
So in here she's pacing and whining and panting and scratching and jumping up on the chair I'm sitting on to try to get me to let her out. If dogs have any concept of injustice, that's what she must be feeling. But she's shown her inability to be around food and lots of people throughout her life. She jumps on people for food, or breaks through the screen door to get outside, etc. My dad just told me she tried to take the bread out of a little kid's hand before. So we can't trust her, but there's no way to explain that to her.
The analogy here for everyone is to watch what happens to you that is never explained. For instance, at work, they often don't tell you you're doing a good job or a bad job, they just give you more or less work accordingly. So if you find yourself being given more and more responsibility at work, don't complain and ask why everyone's dumping on you: It's a compliment. Similarly, if you find yourself sitting around while other people are being given work you can do, take that as a message that you're doing something wrong.
The same type of lesson can translate to other areas of life. In short, pay attention to how people treat you, not necessarily what they say to you.
Sunday, September 28, 2003
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