Empathy: (noun)
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I’m including this definition because I’m not sure many of us know what it is. I mean, sure, we understand the gist of the word, but the idea and the application of the word are very, very different concepts than the word itself. We, as a society, know how to pronounce and define, but not how to perform and demonstrate this known, yet strange concept of empathy. Empathy is one of the essential factors in the equation of compassion, an equation that defines how we live. If empathy is removed from the formula, or misapplied, the entire equation warps, and our lives are greatly impacted. And, over time, empathy has been removed, or at the very least, our standards for empathy have been lowered exponentially. We see it every day: when someone drops their books in the hallway and nearly everyone just skirts around the victim, throwing them a sideways glance, slightly embarrassed for them, though at the same time glad it wasn’t them, and mildly irritated for the inconvenience this victim of pure luck has caused them, the passerby. Or when a pedestrian attempts to cross the road, yet no car is willing to pause their precious schedule for a mere minute in order to let the pedestrian pass. Empathy is an essential part of life, but we choose to exclude that from our lives, focusing on ourselves and our own lives, excluding others, save for when we find them useful. If we cannot find it in ourselves to reach out to others even when it doesn’t benefit us, we cannot progress as a society. Ever.
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