Joel Segel, who wrote a book with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, told me that he was in Zalman’s house and offered to do the dishes.  There was some question about whether he should do this, and Zalman said to his wife,” It is OK.  He can do the dishes.  He knows how to do them without wasting water.”

What I like about this story is how much attention this well-known rabbi was paying attention to the most “minor” things in life (really the big things!) – like not using too much water while doing the dishes.  For most Americans, how much water we use while doing the dishes is off our radar screens. We assume the water supply is endless. (Note; It is not. Just ask anyone in Georgia these days).  Plus, Zalman was also paying attention to how his co-author had done some dishes in the past.    He was paying attention to this detail.  And Zalman’s criterion for allowing a guest to do the dishes had to do with whether she/he could do them without wasting water.

 There is so much learning in stories – about what really matters.  I am constantly amazed how much the seemingly “little things” are really, deep down for most of use, the big things.

I am struck by how many of our adult children are becoming artists.  “The arty children of leftist parents” my adult daughter called them.  What is it about art that is so attractive today?  It can challenge the status quo in a way often more effective than policy change.  Art can move our thoughts and mental models and those thoughts and mental models control a lot of what we take as possible.  Art –especially music and theater – can affect our feeling, our sense of reality, our hearts and minds.  Art can inspire us to go beyond our fears.

When we are afraid we sing, “We are not afraid,” The civil rights movement sang (and prayed) and this was different from the chants we hear today so often.  Singing is different from chanting.  The tone, rhythm, and feel are different.

But maybe it is just that most other industries have gone overseas and the only work left in the USA is entertainment.  So video, film and other arts become what people have to do for more mundane, economic reasons: that is where you might be able to make a living.  But I am not sure.

The other day I was with 19 year old college students interested in politics.  2 of the 3 (and most of the class, the teacher told me later) can into their interest in politics from music – from rock groups like “anti-flag” ...   more »