Jackie and Jillie have a way between them of keeping us grounded. Whenever we speak now, it's in fairly hushed tones, tones of disbelief and grief. The news is bad and it only gets worse. We've always known -- from painful first-hand experience, not to mention everything that has happened elsewhere during our lifetime -- that Jews have a very special place in the opinion of an astonishing number of people with whom we share this globe. Yet nothing prepared us for the public onslaught of hatred and venom exuding from a great public demonstrating against a country that had just suffered a catastrophic loss of life at the hands of a terrorist group.

 

Yesterday, while I was doing the house-cleaning, shaking dusters I'd used in the interminable dusting process of everything I could reach in the house, familiar colours, bright and unmistakable caught my eye down the street. We have neighbours that have hailed from all parts of the world. Several years back we met and welcomed a young man who had just moved to the street, in a house about ten down from ours. It was obvious he was from the Middle East, and I pegged him for a Syrian. At a later date we also met his wife and his two young children. Friendly, albeit distant neighbourly relations ensued.

 

After all, 60 years earlier, our family doctor had been a Syrian, a man we trusted with our family's health, a kind and knowledgeable physician whom we all respected. That was then, and that man was not the people who have more latterly immigrated to Canada. There are so many Middle Easterner-originated hyphenated-Canadians resident here now, that mosques abound. Those colours that hit my eyes were from a flag festooning the vehicle of a visitor to our neighbour's house; a large 'Palestinian' flag.

 

I envisioned that vehicle and the man driving it attending one or many of the countless 'pro-Palestinian' rallies taking place all over Canada. Rallies that make no secret that those attending loathe Israel and by extension Jewish-Canadians, since their practised calls say as much. It's an eerie feeling to witness such evidence of a mental state that afflicts so many with antisemitism. These rallies have given Jew-haters a reason in their minds, to publicly celebrate their hatred of Jews.

 

That we have two little dogs who depend on our attention and their inclusion in all we do is a boon for our sense of balance, helping us by diverting our focus to matters other than being surrounded by hate. Our daily forays with them out to the forest to enjoy trekking through woodland trails is a vital part of the quality of life we enjoy here. Their need for attention from us is invaluable in forcing us to recognize the need for normalcy.