Loyalty beyond me
You may be wondering:
I know we should be loyal to Israel, or at least keep our criticisms of Israel to ourselves. But I’m not sure what that means any more – let alone know how to explain it to my kids. I wish I could just tell my kids that they have to love Israel and that’s it, but I can’t. It’s more complicated than that. How do I get them to understand that you can bitch about a country that’s so important to you?
The conversation you may hold with your child:
- Who is your best friend? What makes them your best friend?
- In what way are they your best friend because of what they think of you, and in what way are they your best friend because of what you think of them?
- In what way are they your best friend because of the way they behave to you, and in what way are they your best friend because of the way you behave to them?
- If your best friend were to do something you thought was wrong, would you tell them? (For example, if your friend were to do something unkind to someone who didn’t deserve such treatment.)
- Would you stop them before they did it, or would you tell them afterwards?
- Would you tell them in private, or in front of others? Why? Why not?
Perhaps leading to:
An analogy has been established. We now have a complex example to draw on, where the particularly adult concept of “critical loyalty” lives in your child’s frame of reference. Now begins the real work, of helping your kid become friends with this country that may occasionally upset him/her…
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